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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Presented  by  Mr.  Samuel  Agnew  of  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


BX  9193  .S9  W6  1874  c.l 
Swing,  David,  1830-1894. 
The  world's  edition  of  the 
great  Presbyterian  conflict 


THE  WORLD'S  EDITION 


OF  THE 


GREAT 

Patton  vs.  Swing. 


BOTH  SIDES  OF  THE  QUESTION. 


mit\^  |orfraiis  of  |rofB.  |attoit  anb  Sfeing, 


And  containing  a  full  outline  of  the  circumstances  which  preceded  the  trial,  many  of  which  are  not 

known  to  the  public.    Pulpit  sketches  of  Profs.  Swing  and  Patton,  by  the  Rev.  Chas.  L. 

Thompson,  of  this  city.     Also,  the  fourteen  famous   sermons  preached  by 

Prof.  Swing,  "for  utterances  in  which"  the  prosecution  has 

based  its  charges  of  heterodoxy. 


The  Celebrated  ''Charges  and  Specifications;" 


Prof.  Swing's  Declaration ;   Prof.  Patton's  famous  argument ;   the  answer  to  the  same  by  Prof.  Swing 

and  his  counsel;    the  closing  argument  by  Prof.  Patton,  and 

the  verdict  of  the  Presbytery. 


CHICAGO: 

Geo.  MacDonald  &  Co. 

1S74. 


'uBLisHERS'  Notice. 


In  presenting  this  volume  to  the  public,  the  publishers  desire  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  they  have  named  this  issue  "The  World's  Edition,"  and  at  the  same  time 
think  it  proper  to  explain  their  reasons  for  doing  so.  The  contents  of  this  work,  with  one 
exception,  have  been  free  to  the  world  from  the  time  they  were  written  or  spoken.  The 
entire  report  of  the  "Trial  of  Prof.  Swing  for  heresy,"  has  been  published  in  all  the 
leading  newspapers  of  this  city,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Prof.  Swing's  celebrated 
Sermons,  they  having  been  printed  in  ^'■The  Chicago  Times, ''^  "Chicago  Tribune,^''  "The 
Inter  Ocean,''^  "The  Chicago  Pulpit,''''  "The  Alliance,''''  and  other  journals,  all  of  which 
are  free  from  copyright  and  trade  monopoly.  Considering,  therefore,  that  the  matter 
herein  contained  has  been  spoken  to  the  world  by  Prof.  Swing,  Dr.  Patton  and  others,  and 
ptiblished  to  the  world  through  the  journals  here  named,  the  publishers  think  that  "The 
.World's  Edition"  is  a  fitting  title  for  the  present  issue. 

While  the  publishers  make  a  claim  of  the  title  page,  by  copyright,  for  their  own  pro- 
tection, they  unhesitatingly  proclaim  to  the  world  that  the  entire  contents  of  this  work 
(with  that  exception)  belong  to  the  world,  and  can  be  published  by  any  person  or  firm 
throughout  the  globe,  as  free  from  copyright  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  publishers  embrace  the  present  opportunity  for  tendering  their  sincere  thanks  to 
the  members  of  the  Chicago  Press  for  the  interest  they  have  manifested  in  the  present 
volume,  and  for  the  valuable  assistance  they  have  lent  them  in  fiirnishing  carefiilly 
corrected  reports  of  the  speeches  and  proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  during  the  trial. 

Lakeside  Building,  Chicago,  May,  1874. 


INDEX. 


Publishers'  Notice,      ....--..2 

Review  of  the  Conflict,  with  Verdict,      -  -  -  -  ■-  -     4 

Truths  for  To-Day,      .---....  8 

Fourteen   of  the   famous   SERMONS  preached   by  Prof.   Swing,   "for 

utterances  in  which  "  the  prosecution  based  its  charges  of  heterodoxy: 

St.  Paul  and  the  Golden  Age,       -  -  -  -  -  -  -9 

A  Broad  Orthodoxy,  -.._._-  15 

Influence  of  Democracy  on  Christian  Doctrine,  -  -  -  -     20 

The  World's  Great  Need, 27 

The  Value  of  Yesterday,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -    33 

Soul  Culture,  --..----39 

Variation  of  Moral  Motive,         -  .  .  -  _,-  -45 

Old  Testament  Inspiration,     -------51 

Salvation  and  Morality,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -56 

The  Joyful  Sunday,     --------  62 

The  Gradual  Decline  of  Vice,      -  -  -  -  -  -  -68 

A  Missionary  Religion,  -------74 

Christianity  a  Life,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -80 

A  Religion  of  Words,  -------  86 

THE   CASE  OF   PATTON   TS.  SWING  : 

Charges  and  Specifications,  ------  92 

Prof.  Swing's  Declaration,  -------     101 

ARGUMENTS   FOR   THE    PROSECUTION   AND   DEFENSE  : 

Dr.  Swazey's  Protest,  ......_  106 

Prof.  Patton's  Argument,  .------  107 

Rev.  Mr.  Noyes'  Argument,  -.----  132 

Prof.  Swing's  Plea,         --------  138 

Rev.  Mr.  Noyes  continues  the  Argument,  -  .  -  -  146 

The  Closing  Argument  by  Prof.  Patton,  -----  161 

Report  on  the  Verdict,  -------  163 


A   REVIEW    OF   THE    CONFLICT. 


Before  perusing  this  work,  it  may  be  of  some  interest  for  the  reader  to  know 
some  of  the  circumstances  which  preceded  and  produced  it.  They  are  simply 
these : — 

For  the  past  few  years  Professor  Swing's  sermons  have  attracted  considerable 
attention,  and  have  been  quoted  by  the  secular  and  religious  press  throughout  the 
country ;  some  praising  him  for  his  broad  views  and  eloquent  expression  of  the 
gospel,  while  others,  commenting  on  his  eloquence,  expressed  their  doubts  as  to 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  views. 

Matters  stood  in  this  way  untillast  summer,  when  the  Pittsburgh  Presbyterian 
Banner  published  an  article  reflecting  upon  Mr.  Swing's  orthodoxy.  This  article 
was  copied  by  the  Interior^  which  is  edited  by  Dr.  Patton,  and  he  made  some  able 
comments  on  it.  To  this  Professor  Swing,  by  way  of  exculpating  himself  from 
the  charges  of  the  Banner,  and  to  rebut  the  comments  of  the  Interior,  wrote  a 
letter  on  the  subject.  This  called  forth  an  editorial  in  the  Interior,  which  was 
followed  by  another  letter  from  Professor  Swing. 

This  newspaper  war  at  once  attracted  attention,  and  ministers  and  people 
began  to  look  into  matters  for  themselves.  Professor  Swing's  sermons  were  read 
with  special  interest.  Some  thought  them  orthodox  ;  others  were  of  the  opposite 
opinion. 

The  Presbyterian  clergymen,  of  Chicago,  meet  together  once  a  week  (on 
Mondays),  for  the  exchange  of  thought  and  religious  conversation.  In  one  of  these 
meetings,  held  in  April,  the  subject  of  Dr.  Patton's  criticisms  on  Professor  Swing's 
sermons  became  the  theme  of  conversation,  which  soon  assumed  the  features  of  a 
warm  discussion.  Some  expressed  themselves  as  to  Dr.  Patton's  action  being 
unwarrantable  and  unjust ;  others  took  an  entirely  different  view  of  the  subject; 
and  it  was  evident  when  the  meeting  broke  up  that  the  matter  would  result  in 
serious  consequence  if  its  discussion  were  renewed. 

On  the  following  Monday,  the  meeting  was  remarkably  well  attended,  and 
every  member  seemed  ready  for  discussion  on  the  Swing-Patton  affair  should 
opportunity  present  itself.  At  length  one  of  the  members  presented  a  resolution 
indorsing  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  Interior  on  February  12th,  to  the  effect 
that  "there  are  those  who  doubt,  and  we  among  them,  that  Professor  Swing 
believes  that  Christ  is  God  :  that  the  death  of  Christ  was  an  expiatory  sacrifice ; 
that  men  were  justified  by  faith  alone ;  that  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  is  eter- 
nal ;  and  that  he  believes  in  the  Church  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  in  the  regen- 
erating influence  of  the  spirit;"  and  stating  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  author  of 
the  article  to  bring  the  subject  matter  thereof  under  the  notice  of  the  Presbytery, 
with  a  view  of  its  determining,  on  inquiry,  whether  said  doubts  were  well  or  ill- 
founded.  There  then  ensued  a  sharp  debate,  and  the  resolution  was  withdrawn  by 
general  consent.    At  a  meeting  of  Presbytery  shortly  after.  Dr.  Patton  gave  notice 


4   REVIEW  OF  THE   CONFLICT.  6 

that  he  would  prefer  formal  charges  against  Professor  Swing  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Presbytery  in  April. 

On  April  14th,  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago  began  its  annual  meeting.  Dr. 
Patton  presented  two  charges.  The  first  charge,  which  was  supported  by  twenty- 
five  specifications,  set  forth  that  Professor  Swing  had  not  been  zealous  and  faithful 
in  maintaining  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  had  not  been  faithful  and  diligent  in 
the  exercise  of  the  duties  of  his  position.  The  second  charge,  supported  by  four 
specifications,  set  forth  that  Professor  David  Swing  did  not  sincerely  receive  and 
adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  containing  the  system 
of  doctrines  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  strongest  points  urged  in  the 
charges  were  that  Professor  Swing  had  shown  himself  in  his  sermons  to  be  guilty 
of  Sabellianism  and  Unitarianism ;  that  he  had  used  unwarrantable  language  about 
Penelope ;  that  he  had  preached  in  aid  of  the  Mary  Price  Collier  Unitarian  Chapel, 
and  had  totally  rejected  three  great  Presbyterian  tenets. 

After  a  warm  debate,  it  was  decided  to  refer  the  matter  of  the  charges  to  the 
judiciary  committee,  who,  on  the  Monday  following,  presented  a  majority  and 
minority  report.  After  discussion,  the  reports  were  recommended,  and  the  modified 
specifications  were  ordered  to  be  presented  to  the  meeting  the  following  day.  On 
account  of  the  illness  of  Professor  Swing,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes,  whom  he  designated 
as  his  counsel  in  the  trial,  was  appointed  to  that  office  by  the  Presbytery.  The 
revised  charges  of  Dr.  Patton  were  reported  back  to  the  Presbytery  April  22,  and 
were  accepted,  and  the  time  for  the  commencement  of  proceedings  was  fixed  for 
Monday,  May  4.  On  this  day  the  accused  was  called  upon  to  plead,  which  he  did 
in  a  statement  in  which  he  set  forth  that  he  was  a  New  School  Presbyterian.  He 
submitted  a  number  of  observations  setting  forth  his  Christian  creed,  and  showing 
that  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  slipped,  and  was  slipping,  away  from  the  reli- 
gion of  despair,  and  had  come  unto  Mount  Zion  into  the  atmosphere  of  Jesus  as 
He  was  in  life  and  death,  full  of  love  and  forgiveness. 

,  Dr.  Patton  made  a  strenuous  but  unsuccessful  demand  for  a  continuance,  and 
on  the  following  day  the  examination  of  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  commenced. 
Among  those  were  Dr.  Patterson,  who  expressed  his  conviction  of  Professor 
Swing's  orthodoxy;  Mr.  W.  C.  Goudy,  who  held  a  different  view;  and  Dr. 
Swazey,  who  helped  the  defense  with  his  testimony  concerning  an  alleged  heretical 
sermon.  Thursday,  May  7,  the  examination  of  Judge  H.  G.  Miller  was  proceeded 
with,  who  told  what  he  remembered  of  the  sermon  on  "Ministerial  Calling,"  and 
Mr.  Shufeldt,  who  strengthened  the  prosecution  by  asserting  that  he  considered 
Professor  Swing  to  be  unsound  on  the  question  of  infant  damnation.  This  closed 
the  testimony  for  the  prosecution,  after  which  a  motion  for  continuance  was  made 
by  Dr.  Patton,  on  the  ground  of  the  absence  of  an  important  witness,  the  Kev. 
Laird  Collier,  and  refused,  the  vote  of  the  maker  of  the  motion  being  the  only  one 
recorded  in  its  support.  The  defense  then  began  the  production  of  testimony,  their 
first  witness  being  Horace  F.  Waite,  who  declared  the  utmost  confidence  and  belief 
in  Professor  Swing's  orthodoxy.  On  the  fifth  day  of  the  trial  the  testimony  of 
Messrs.  O.  H.  Lee,  H.  W.  King,  and  Horace  H.  Hurlbut  was  added  to  that  already 
given  in  support  of  the  defense  by  Mr.  Waite,  and  closed  the  case  for  the  accused. 

The  counsel  for  the  defense  then  expressed  a  readiness  to  waive  argument,  but 
Dr.  Patton  declined  to  consent,  and  the  Presbytery  adjourned  until  Tuesday,  May 
12,  in  order  to  hear  the  arguments  of  the  prosecutor  and  defendant.  On  this  day 
Dr.  Patton  commenced  his  argument  for  the  prosecution,  which  was  both  lengthy 


6  '  A  REVIEW  OF  THE   CONFLICT. 

and  exhaustive.*  The  Eev.  Mr.  Noyes  followed  with  his  defense  of  the  accused. 
Unfortunately,  he  was  deterred  by  sickness  frem  speaking  longer  than  an  hour. 

Saturday,  May  16,  Professor  Swing  took  up  the  argument  for  defense.  J 

Saturday,  Mr.  Noyes  closed  his  argument  for  the  defense,  and  Dr.  Patton  put 
in  a  replication  for  the  prosecution,  in  which  he  urged  that  Professor  Swing  did 
not  stick  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  that,  therefore,  the  Presbytery  were 
bound  to  find  him  guilty.** 

Monday,  May  18,  the  issue  of  the  trial  was  further  discussed  by  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Patterson. 

On  Tuesday,  several  of  the  Presbyters  delivered  speeches  ;  some  on  his  guilt, 
and  others  on  his  innocence. 

Wednesday,  it  was  apparent  that  the  close  of  the  trial  was  near  at  hand.  On 
this  day  twenty-nine  Presbyters  gave  their  opinions  in  the  case.  After  the  Pres- 
byters had  spoken  their  views,  the  question  arose  as  to  how  they  should  vote. 

Eev.  Dr.  Hurd  moved  that  the  vote  be  taken  on  the  several  charges  and  speci- 
fications by  the  calling  of  the  roll,  each  member,  as  his  name  is  called,  to  vote  to 
"sustain  "  them  or  "  not  to  sustain  "  them. 

After  a  warm  discussion,  the  motion  was  carried. 

Rev.  Mr.  Brown  moved  that  the  members  vote  on  each  specification  in  its 
moral  sense,  as  sustaining  or  not  sustaining  the  guilt  charged  on  the  accused. 

After  a  long  discussion,  this  motion  also  prevailed. 

Eev.  Dr.  Blackburn  moved  that  those  who  desired  be  allowed  to  vote  "  sus- 
tained in  part,"  in  reference  to  the  specifications. 

The  motion  provoked  considerable  discussion,  Professor  Swing's  friends  oppos- 
ing and  Dr.  Patton's  favoring  it.  After  the  members  had  all  spoken  their  views, 
the  motion  was  laid  on  the  table — ayes,  30 ;  nays,  21. 

Eev.  Mr.  McLeod  did  not  think  it  right  to  prohibit  any  member  from  voting 
as  he  pleased,  and  he  proposed  to  give  in  his  vote  with  the  clerk  in  part  where  he 
desired  on  certain  specifications,  despite  the  action  just  taken.  Several  members 
declared  similar  intentions. 

After  discussion,  the  Presbytery  reconsidered  their  vote,  and  then  passed 
Blackburn's  motion. 

THE  EOLL  CALL. 

The  roll  was  then  called  on  the  final  vote,  and  the  members  answered  either 
by  a  single  "  no  "  on  sustaining  the  charges  and  specifications,  or  by  singling  out 
the  specifications  that  had  not  been  sustained.    The  result  was  as  follows  : 

NOT  SUSTAINED. 

E.  W.  Patterson,  Arthur  Swazey,  A.  H.  Dean,  W.  N,  Blackburn,  N.  Barrett, 
W.  Forsythe,  J.  Covert,  E.  E.  Davis,  E.  L.  Hurd,  W.  P.  Brown,  E.  Schofield, 
J.  B.  McClure,  J.  Post,  B.  S.  Johnson,  J.  Otis,  O.  H.  Lee,  J.  E.  Fay,  A.  L.  Winney, 
S.  B.  Williams,  E.  E.  Barber,  A.  H.  Merrill,  W.  H.  Dunton,  W.  P.  Caton,  J.  H. 
Taylor,  J.  H.  Burns,  J.  H.  Trowbridge,  J.  H.  Walker,  M.  M.  Wakeman,  W.  E. 
Downs,  J.  T.  Matthews,  C.  L.  Thompson,  C.  Wisner,  A.  E.  Kittredge,  Glen  Wood, 
L.  H.  Eeid,  D.  H.  Curtis,  E.  W.  Barrett,  J.  S.  Gould,  E.  Smith,  F.  A.  Eiddle,  H. 
A.  Hopkins,  D.  E.  Holt,  J.  H.  Hurlbut,  A.  Dreysdell,  G.  H.  Leonard,  A.  Mitchell. 

•  See  Dr.  Patton's  argument  for  the  Prosecution, 
t  See  Prof.  Swing's  Argument. 
•*  See  Dr.  Patton's  Replication, 


A  REVIEW  OF  THE  CONFLICT. 


SUSTAINED   IN   PARTS. 


L.  J.  Halsey,  W.  F.  Wood,  J.  McLeod,  D.  J.  Burrell,  K.  K.  Wharton,  J.  M. 
Wharton,  J,  D.Wallace,  H.  Warden,  J.  M.  Ferris,  Ben.  E.  S.  Ely,  E.  L.  Garden, 
W.  Brobson,  W.  C.  Young,  T.  King,  M.  Lewis. 

Total  not  sustained,  46.     Sustained  in  parts,  15. 

The  moderator  said  the  next  thing  in  order,  according  to  the  programme,  was 
the  rendering  of  a  judgment  by  the  judicatory. 

Eev.  Dr.  Hurd  moved,  in  order  to  facilitate  business,  that  a  committee  of 
three  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  minute  to  express  the  finding  of  the  court. 

The  motion  prevailed. 

The  moderator  appointed  Eev.  Dr.  Patterson,  Elder  Barber  and  Eev.  Mr. 
McLeod  as  such  committee. 

A  recess  was  then  taken  until  2:30  o'clock. 

Afternoon  Session. — The  afternoon  session  began  at  the  stated  hour.  The 
moderator  asked  for  the  report  of  the  committee  on  a  verdict,  and  Dr.  Patterson 
submitted  the  following : 

The  Verdict. — The  committee  find  from  the  record  of  the  clerks  that  the  vote 
of  the  Presbytery  in  this  case  stood  as  follows :  Sixty-one  votes  were  cast,  of 
which  15  were  in  favor  of  sustaining  the  first  charge,  and  13  for  sustaining  the 
second  charge;  46  against  sustaining  the  first  charge,  and  48  against  sustaining  the 
second  charge.  We  therefore  find  that  the  accused  has  been  acquitted  of  both 
charges  by  the  judgment  of  this  court  aforesaid. 

E.  W.  Patterson. 
James  McLeod. 
E.  E.  Barber. 

Eev.  Dr.  Swazey  moved  that  the  report  be  adopted. 

The  motion  prevailed,  after  which  the  Presbytery  turned  its  attention  to  the 
transaction  of  miscellaneous  business. 

They  had  not  proceeded  far,  when  Professor  Patton  rose  and  said  that  he  was 
not  present  when  the  report  of  the  committee  was  presented  in  reference  to  the 
finding  of  the  court,  but  he  had  since  learned  its  nature.  He  now  begged  leave,  at 
this  point,  to  give  notice  that  it  was  his  intention  to  appeal — with  all  due  deference 
to  this  body — to  the  synod  of  Northern  Illinois,  which  meets  next  October,  and  he 
would  file  his  appeal  within  ten  days  after  the  Presbytery  adjourned,  according  to 
the  rules  of  that  body.     [Applause.] 

Some  objection  being  oflfered  to  the  brevity  of  the  report  of  the  committee  on 
the  verdict,  the  motion  to  adopt  was  reconsidered,  and  a  new  committee  was 
appointed  to  bring  in  a  verdict  and  reasons  for  the  finding  of  the  court. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  Presbytery,  May  25,  the  report  of  said  committee 
was  presented  and  adopted.    See  report  of  committee  on  verdict,  page  163. 


cm  iba-         '' 


.i 


TRUTHS  FOR  TO-DAY.* 

spoken  in  the  Past  "Winter  by  David  Swing. 


[Cut  from  "The  Chicago  Alliance."] 

To  say  that  these  sermons  are  thoughtful,  eloquent,  scholarly  productions  of  a 
devout  mind,  would  very  imperfectly  express  their  character.  If,  in  addition  to 
this,  they  should  be  described  as  combining  great  tenderness  with  intellectual  force, 
poetic  felicities  with  logical  power,  broad  Christian  sympathy  with  solid  sense  and 
holy  motive,  then  their  main  features  only  would  be  indicated.  As  religious 
writings  they  have  decided  and  valuable  characteristics  of  their  own.  In  style 
they  are  as  unlike  Bushnell  as  Arnold,  no  nearer  Eobertson  than  Beecher,  no  more 
like  Phillips  Brooks  than  George  McDonald.  Swing  reminds  you  of  these  in- 
fluential names,  not  because  he  is  an  imitator,  but  because  with  them  he  recognizes 
the  divine  constitution  of  things,  respects  human  nature,  and  pleads  for  the 
practical  in  religion.  But  Prof.  Swing  could  not  write  as  he  does  without  a  gift 
of  his  own,  for  it  is  not  his  learning,  or  culture,  or  piety,  that  can  explain  his 
peculiar  persuasiveness.  We  have  elsewhere,  in  an  analysis  of  his  genius,  ascribed 
his  power  to  a  very  happy  and  rare  blending  of  heart-force  and  brain-force — spir- 
ituality and  imagination — sensibility  and  good  sense.  With  such  a  nature,  he 
can  never  be  a  sectary — can  never  devote  himself  to  the  promulgation  of  one  idea. 
No  one  can  read  his  sermons  without  recognizing  their  catholicity  of  spirit,  their 
gracious  aim,  the  fertility  of  their  matter,  and  their  helpfulness  to  souls  that  recoil 
from  the  formal  and  arbitrary  in  religion.  As  sacred  compositions,  they  captivate 
by  a  sweetness  that  is  as  natural  to  them  as  tints  to  the  rose  or  flavor  to  the  straw- 
berry. They  are  logical  without  a  display  of  argumentation,  and  poetical  without 
any  sacrifice  of  directness  and  sincerity.  While  one's  reason  is  appealed  to  all 
along,  the  language  of  the  appeal  comes  up  all  blossoming  and  fragrant  with  the 
heart.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  the  same  compass  so  much  real  poetry  and  logic 
in  vital  union  as  in  these  discourses.     And  here  is  the  secret  of  their  power. 

His  volume  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  formal  commentary,  nor  a  body  of 
systematic  divinity.  It  is  simply  one  harmonious  note  in  the  great  plea  of  the 
Gospel  for  charity,  and  brotherhood,  and  noble  living,  and  a  loving  following  of 
the  Lord  Christ.  It  is  just  as  absurd  to  criticise  Prof.  Swing  for  not  writing  and 
preaching  in  the  Pattonian  vein,  as  to  complain  of  a  meadow-lark  for  not  being  a 
hand-organ,  or  a  clear,  free,  mountain  streamlet,  singing  among  the  ferns  and 
mosses,  for  not  sounding  like  a  coffee  mill.  He  has  his  place  to  fill  among  the 
children  of  men.  Not  all  are  called  to  the  same  service.  There  are  diversities  of 
gifts,  but  the  same  spirit ;  differences  of  administrations,  but  the  same  Lord.  No 
one  supposes  that  he  is  called  to  preach  Calvinism,  but  in  the  great  procession  of 
our  humanity,  so  sad  with  its  burdens,  and  sins,  and  burials,  and  tears,  if  he  can 
encourage  any  to  take  hold  of  the  Infinite  hand  that  is  so  near  them,  and  to  rest 
on  the  Infinite  heart  that  yearns  over  them,  if  he  can  beget  in  any  a  hunger  for 
the  eternal  Eighteousness,  and  teach  sorrowful  eyes  to  see,  in  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
the  majestic  meanings  of  life,  and  to  strive  for  the  fruition,  as  we  believe  he  is 
doing,  then  he  does  not  preach  in  vain  nor  labor  in  vain.  H.  N.  p. 

♦  The  title  of  a  work  by  Prof.  Swing,  published  by  Jansen,  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago. 


Rev.  DAVID  SWING. 


Rev.  FRANCIS  L.  PATTON,  D.  D. 


ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE. 


Paul  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ.     Romans  i  :  I, 

The  immense  amount  of  attention  given,  within  recent  years,  to  the  relation 
of  Paul  to  Christianity,  warrants  us  in  drawing  some  inferences  regarding  that 
prominent  character,  at  least  justifies  us  in  making  him  a  theme  of  brief  remark. 
It  will  be  years  yet  before  the  position  of  St.  Paul  can  be  fully  defined,  and  for 
this  closing  up  of  accounts  none  of  us  can  afi"ord  to  wait.  It  is  the  privilege  of 
each  year  to  gather  up  the  approximations  of  truth  that  appear  within  its  own 
bounds,  and,  pending  the  final  decision,  to  derive  what  cheer  or  help  it  may  from 
the  evidence  rendered  up  to  the  passing  hour. 

As  in  the  trial  of  some  great  personage,  the  public  does  not  await  in  solemn 
silence  the  closing  of  the  case  and  the  decision  of  the  court,  but  irresistibly  follows 
each  witness  and  weighs  the  testimony  each  hour  ;  so,  in  the  progress  of  moral 
inquiry,  one  cannot  sit  down  and  wait  for  the  end,  but  by  the  mind's  nature  is  led 
along  through  a  series  of  weights  and  measurements  in  succeeding  days.  There  is 
no  provision  made  in  the  mind  for  perfect  repose.  It  is  commanded  us  by  nature 
to  go  on.     Like  the  Wandering  Jew,  in  the  fable,  we  must  march,  march,  march  1 

But  the  following  obligation  should  be  confessed,  namely,  that  the  newer  the 
inquiry,  the  greater  the  number  of  facts  not  yet  brought  in,  the  greater  should  be 
the  modesty  and  charity  of  the  wondering  crowd,  hoping,  longing,  fearing,  as  they 
stand  around  the  witnesses  and  the  box  of  the  accused.  Before  the  vast  inquiries 
now  opening  up  like  a  river  that  approaches  the  sea,  —  inquiries  rising  under  the 
name  of  Darwin  or  Huxley,  one  need  not  sit  down  in  silence,  but  may  only  proceed 
with  the  charity  and  humility  of  children  diffident  in  their  helpless  youth.  If 
inferences  must  cease  until  inquiries  are  wholly  ended,  life  is  reduced  to  a  sleep 
that  needs  waking  only  once  in  a  hundred  years. 

In  all  the  present  inquiry  about  St.  Paul  there  is  no  vital  idea  involved. 
Hence,  nothing  is  to  be  feared,  even  if  not  much  were  to  be  hoped.  How  far  he 
difi"ered  from  the  other  apostles,  how  far  he  was  designed  of  God  to  give  shape  and 
tone  to  the  Church,  how  far  he  has  done  so,  what  were  his  views,  what  his  genius, 
how  far  his  teachings  were  local,  how  far  universal,  are  inquiries  that  involve  no 
calamity,  and  hence  need  produce  no  passion,  no  trembling  among  Christians,  nor 
boastings  among  infidel  hearts.  The  inquiry  promises  good  to  the  Church  far 
more  than  it  forebodes  any  evil.  Paul  seems  a  power  only  half-weighed,  half- 
prized  in  the  past.  The  new  attention  of  the  present  seems  to  be  the  return  of  the 
Christian  mind  to  a  better  estimate  of  its  own  outfit  and  resources. 

An  age  afar  off  may  better  read  a  man  or  a  system  than  an  age  that  was  near, 
because  it  may  bring  to  the  task  a  more  congenial  mind  and  heart.  That  the 
Church  has  reached  a  point  eighteen  centuries  away  from  St.  Paul  is  no  proof  that 


10  ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE. 

it  ever  exhausted,  or  even  fully  studied,  the  details  of  the  doctrine,  or  spirit  of  the 
apostle.  It  often  happens  that  a  thousand  years  come  between  an  event  and  any 
careful  study  of  the  event.  Men  are  diverted  by  some  new  issue,  and  then  by  some 
other  issue,  and  for  hundreds  of  years  make  no  sign  of  return  to  any  objects  that 
stood  by  their  starting  point.  Thus  Aristotle  unfolded  the  inductive  philosophy,  but 
men  turned  away  from  it  and  never  came  near  it  again  until  in  the  far-off  days  of 
Lord  Bacon.  Astronomy  flourished  in  old  Egypt,  and  was  quite  complete  and 
truthful ;  but  the  public  mind  deserted  it  and  returned  not  until  in  modern 
periods.  Thus  men  are  always  making  long  and  great  wanderings,  and  great  and 
beautiful  returns. 

In  Mexico  and  South  America  there  are  old  mines  of  silver  and  gold  where, 
thousands  of  years  ago,  shafts  were  sunk  and  furnaces  were  busy  separating  the 
metal  from  dust.  But  upspringing  war,  or  decay  of  industry,  or  growth  of  vice 
drew  away  the  toilers  and  left  the  mines  to  the  silence  of  a  thousand  years.  Now 
the  new  status  assumed  by  the  nineteenth  century  sends  men  back  to  the  mines, 
and  new  shafts  are  sunk,  and  new  furnaces  blaze  in  the  long  deserted  valleys  of 
the  precious  ores. 

In  religion,  the  ages  desert  rich  veins,  and,  after  decay  has  hung  for  centuries 
about  the  old  shafts,  back  come  their  remote  children,  and  with  double  energy  and 
intelligence  make  the  gold  and  silver  distill  from  the  old  earth.  They  return  with 
better  science  and  secure  a  richer  yield. 

The  early  tendency  of  the  Church  toward  temporal  power,  drew  away  from 
the  spirituality  of  Christ  and  from  the  broad  republicanism  of  St.  Paul.  The  fact 
that  Peter  was  represented  as  having  the  keys,  and  being  the  rock  upon  which  the 
Church  was  founded,  drew  the  attention  of  the  early  half-barbarous  Church  toward 
that  one  apostle,  and  for  fifteen  hundred  years  Peter  was  the  ideal  genius  of  the 
Christian  establishment.  Not  the  absolute  Peter  of  the  Testament,  but  the  idealized 
Peter  of  Komanism  —  Peter  with  human  embellishment,  Peter,  transformed  into 
a  colossus.  One  can  perceive  this  transformation  and  enthronement  of  this  apostle, 
not  only  in  the  fact  that  he  was  made  pope  and  was  followed  by  a  regular  succes- 
sion, but  even  in  the  sculpture  and  painting  of  the  middle  ages  in  which  arts  Peter 
always  enjoyed  the  richest  colors  and  robes,  and  the  whitest  blocks  of  marble. 
Moses,  David,  Peter,  were  the  favorites  of  the  artists. 

Innocently,  and  even  unconsciously,  St.  Paul  was  left  under  a  cloud.  He  was 
so  world-wide,  so  separated  from  forms  and  from  localities,  that,  to  the  half- 
civilized  ages,  he  was  almost  invisible,  while  Peter  with  keys  in  his  hand  and  with 
the  suspicion  of  being  a  rock  upon  which  a  Church  could  be  built  for  the  keys  to 
lock  and  unlock,  became  very  visible  indeed.  That  which  men  wish  to  see  is 
always  the  most  visible.  With  the  ideas  that  Paul  held,  that  forms  were  of  little 
value,  that  neither  circumcision  nor  tmcircumcision  availed,  that  neither  meat  nor 
no  meat,  holy  days  nor  no  holy  days,  contained  any  merit,  that  nothing  was  of  any 
value  except  the  new  creature,  the  new  soul  within,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
rise  into  first  notice  and  first  love  in  an  age  to  which  forms  had  been  the  dearest 
and  best  thing.  The  world  was  oligarchic,  despotic,  aristocratic,  in  all  its  education 
and  hopes.  Empire  was  its  largest  idea.  Peter  supposed  to  be  a  rock  of  govern- 
ment, and  supposed  to  possess  keys,  was,  therefore,  worth  a  thousand  times  more 
than  St.  Paul,  who  was  an  exponent  of  man  universal  and  of  a  religion  of  only  the 
heart.     Peter  stood  for  empire,  Paul  for  the  soul. 

Such  an  age  did  not,  and  would  not,  calmly  weigh  the  two  ideas,  the  Paul  and 
Peter,  and  declare  Pister  to  suit  and  delight  it  the  more.     It  would  simply  grasp 


ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  11 

Peter  by  its  instinct.  It  would  not  deliberately  reject  Paul.  It  would  never  dream 
of  his  being  anything  valuable.  When  Indians  select  colored  beads  and  ribbons 
fi'oni  white  explorers,  they  do  not  condemn  the  books,  the  laws,  the  schools  of  the 
white  i-ace.  They  do  nothing  and  think  nothing  on  the  subject.  They  grasp  by 
instinct  and  lay  hold  upon  gaudy  colors  and  objects  of  sense.  So  the  early  Church 
did  not  rationally  condemn  Paul ;  it  reached  out  its  arms  by  instinct  and  grasped 
the  man  that  possessed  the  keys  of  power.  The  act  was  that  of  a  child,  not  that  of 
a  philosopher.  Accustomed  to  an  empire,  it  grasped  for  a  sword  as  did  the  infant 
Achilles. 

In  this  unconscious  neglect  Christ  Himself  suffered,  not  a  little,  along  with 
his  apostle.  It  was,  of  course.  Impossible  for  any  age  wholly  to  overlook  Christ. 
Paul  was  one  of  twelve  and  could  be  escaped,  but  Christ  was  one  of  one.  He  was 
alone.  But  what  was  denied  the  age  in  the  power  to  ignore,  it  atoned  for  in  the 
power  to  interpret  badly.  Compelled  to  see  Christ,  it  interpreted  Him  by  its  own 
instinct,  and  made  of  Him  a  regal  prince  anxious  to  grind  to  powder  many 
enemies  and  to  exalt  a  few  friends.  The  monarchic  instinct  that  doomed  Paul  to 
obscurity,  doomed  the  Christ  to  the  similitude  of  a  rude  King,  rather  than  clothe 
Him  with  the  beauty  of  a  Saviour.  And  thus  the  great  cloud  of  keys  of  empire, 
of  material  things,  of  forms,  of  thrones,  of  princes  and  slaves,  of  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstance threw  its  shadow  far  down  the  valley  of  human  life,  even  down  to  the 
Pilgrims  and  Puritans. 

Paul  and  his  Master,  belonging  to  a  new  era,  to  one  of  spirituality  and  human 
equality,  it  was  necessary  for  them  both  to  lie  in  partial  shadow  until  their  new 
era  should  come.  If  there  was  an  instinct  that  could  grasp  the  literal  keys  and 
local  empire,  so  there  would  be  an  instinct  that  would  grasp  a  new  life  and  a  king- 
dom of  man  universal.  Paul,  along  with  his  Saviour,  must  wait  for  this.  Fitted 
for  a  spiritual  life  they  must  stand  until  the  pageant  of  Peter  had  passed  by. 

Another  great  shadow  followed  the  Church.  It  was  that  of  the  Mosaic  age. 
Moses  and  David  were  grand  monarchs.  Their  brilliant  power  and  severe  institu- 
tions have  haunted  the  Christian  era  in  all  its  long  career.  Notwithstandicg  the 
sermons  of  Christ  and  the  terrible  eloquence  of  St.  Paul  about  the  dissolution  of 
the  Mosaic  economy,  the  empire  of  the  Hebrew  State  was  so  deeply  in  harmony 
with  the  taste  of  bishops  and  popes  that  the  laws  of  Moses  carried  away  the  study 
and  love  that  belonged  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  new  truths  of  the 
Pauline  letters.  The  Mosaic  age  died  slowly.  As  by  long  paths  ages  come,  by 
long  paths  they  depart.  This  shadow  of  Hebrew  power  followed  the  Church,  not 
only  up  to  the  reformation  of  Luther,  but  up  to  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  who  still 
wished  to  seize  upon  some  country  as  Moses  had  seized  upon  Palestine,  and  to 
banish  Quakers  and  Hugenots,  as  Moses  had  silenced  the  Philistines  and  Amoritea. 

The  fact  that  the  Weotminster  Assembly  passed  an  edict  as  to  what  is  required 
and  what  forbidden  in  the  ten  commandments  and  neglected  to  inquire  was  is  en- 
joined and  what  forbidden  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  shows  that  the  empire  of 
Moses  was  still  intruding  itself  upon  the  presence  of  Christ.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  in  all  these  long  centuries  the  more  spiritual  and  liberal  ideas  of  St. 
Paul  lay  in  the  oblivion  of  neglect.  Full  of  universal  love,  reckless  of  geographical 
lines,  hostile  to  the  outward,  devoted  to  the  new  life,  wholly  separate  from  earthly 
power  and  kings,  living  beyond  Moses  as  manhood  outranks  infancy,  and  rapt  in 
the  vision  of  Jesus  Christ,  Paul  was  compelled  to  wait  until  the  rise  of  liberty 
ehould  destroy  alike  the  sceptre  of  Moses  and  the  sceptre  of  the  pope.    He  waited 


12  ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE. 

the  time  to  lead  mankind  to  a  religion  of  the  spirit,  and  to  the  Sermon  on  the 
mountain  side. 

Luther  unveiled  the  image  of  Paul.  That  hand  lifted  some  of  the  heaviest 
drapery.  A  thousand  material  things  were  consumed  by  his  touch,  and  the  faith 
of  the  soul  in  Jesus  Christ  became  brilliantly  visible.  Luther  thundered  against 
penance  and  works  just  as  Paul  thundered  against  the  outward  forms  of  the  Jews ; 
and  against  popes  and  states  just  as  Paul  had  declaimed  against  an  earthly  Jeru- 
salem and  the  caste  of  the  Hebrews.  Luther  was  one  of  the  first  flowers  of  the 
seed  sown  by  the  Saint.  Then  followed  the  wide  German  and  English  efflorescence. 
In  such  mortals  as  John  Wesley  and  "Whitfield  and  DuQ',  and  almost  the  whole 
school  of  those  men,  the  soul  of  Paul  beams  forth,  a  sun  that  had  been  long 
clouded.  They  are  all  the  abandonment  of  the  papal  idea  and  are  the  escape  from 
the  shadow  of  the  Mosaic  age.  They  are  a  reproduction  of  Christ ;  an  acceptance 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  and  Paul. 

Paul's  ideas,  those  of  democracy,  of  spirituality,  instead  of  ceremony,  of 
attachment  to  Jesus  Christ,  were  too  great  for  the  first  fifteen  centuries.  They 
must  needs  lead  a  semi-life  until  the  spread  of  intelligence  and  republicanism 
should  help  abolish  rites,  and  place  all  men  upon  one  level,  not  only  before  God, 
but,  what  is  more  difficult,  before  men. 

An  age  will  never  accept  anything  at  discord  with  itself.  An  aristocratic 
State  will  demand  aristocratic  religion,  schools  and  amusements.  An  ignorant, 
superstitious  country  will  require  a  superstitious  literature  and  religion.  The 
stories  they  tell  their  children  will  be  about  ghosts  and  wonders.  As  an  iron 
magnet  will  not  attract  gold  dust,  nor  brass,  nor  silver,  will  gather  up  nothing  but 
the  dust  of  itself,  will  lift  nothing  but  kindred  iron,  so  an  age  will  lay  hold  of  no 
idea  out  of  harmony  with  its  heart.  Monarchy  grasped  Moses  and  St.  Peter,  and 
let  fall  all  else.  Universal  liberty  reaches  out  for  its  own  children  and  draws  to 
its  bosom  Christ  and  His  large  souled  apostle.  The  development  that  has  plucked 
iron  crowns  from  the  foreheads  of  kings  has  plucked  them  from  the  foreheads  of 
priests,  and  has  given  us  not  only  a  people's  government,  but  a  people's  Saviour. 

But  for  Paul,  it  Ls  thought  by  many  students  of  history  that  Judaism  would 
have  carried  its  circumcision  and  seclusiveness  and  awful  despotism  right  forward 
for  perhaps  a  thousand  years.  It  would  have  wound  the  thorns  of  the  State  laws 
around  the'  body  of  Christ,  a  wreath  of  pain  and  despair  around  a  symbol  of  hope. 
The  revolt  of  St.  Paul  weakened  the  old  dispensation,  and  led  John  and  the  sub- 
sequent Christians  into  the  beginnings  of  a  new  career.  Paul's  steady  light  abates 
the  Mosaic  shadow. 

All  history,  profane  and  sacred,  contains  proofs  that  God  embodies  His  truth 
in  some  human  heart,  buries  it  there  and  commands  it  to  blossom  as  fast  as  men 
give  it  sunshine  enough,  and  only  so  fast. 

In  the  bosom  of  Moses  there  lay  ideas  beyond  his  people.  They  laughed  them 
and  him  to  scorn.  But  in  a  few  centuries,  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  grew  grand 
all  over  with  the  outgrowth  of  Mosaic  truths.  Not  grand  compared  with  a  modern 
ideal,  but  compared  with  what  was  and  had  been.  In  the  outset  Moses  was  too 
great  for  his  people.  In  the  end  the  people  had  caught  up  with  their  leader.  No 
phenomenon  is  more  frequent.  In  St.  Paul  was  buried  the  gospel  of  spirituality, 
of  all  humanity,  of  a  pure  heart  and  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  first  idea  of  spirituality  sounded  the  death  knell  of  forms.  Circumcision 
or  uncircumcision  would  avail  naught,  but  the  "new  creature." 


ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  13 

The  second  idea,  "all  humanity,"  abolished  popes  and  powers,  fagots  and 
proscription,  the  exaltation  of  the  creed  of  ApoUos  or  Cephas,  and  raised  a  slave  to 
the  rank  of  a  son  of  God. 

The  third  idea  of  a  pure  life  announced  the  end  of  a  salvation  by  means  of  a 
complex  machinery  of  doctrine  and  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  of  honesty  and  piety. 

The  fourth  idea,  Jesus  Christ,  yesterday,  tO-day  and  forever,  cast  Christianity 
into  the  form  of  a  personal  friendship  and  love  for  the  divine  Saviour.  For  Paul 
to  live  was  Christ, — to  die,  gain,  because  death  sent  him  to  Christ.  The  world 
resolved  itself  into  the  presence  of  the  Saviour. 

In  Paul's  bosom,  more  than  in  any  other  human  heart,  were  planted  these 
four  ideas — four  rivers  in  the  paradise  of  religion.  As  when  Moses  came  down 
from  the  mount  bis  face  was  radiant  with  a  light  not  visible  to  those  around  him, 
but  streaming  off  to  beat  upon  shores  five  hundred  years  away,  as  Galileo  and 
Bacon  spoke  words  that  were  unheard  by  those  nearest,  but  were  borne  by  some 
strange  reverberation  to  a  multitude  afar  off,  so  Paul,  more  divinely,  carried  in 
his  bosom  truth-germs  destined  to  blossom  far  away  from  the  tomb  of  his  dust. 
Perhaps  these  seeds  are  now  disturbing  the  soil  of  this  century. 

Think  of  these  four  great  ideas.  Spirituality  I  This  is  nothing  else  than  a 
divineness  of  soul,  a  rising  above  things  material,  gold  and  lands  and  raiment,  and 
living  for  the  soul  in  its  relations  to  time  and  eternity.  God  is  called  a  spirit 
because  there  are  characteristics  in  all  material  things  that  separate  them  from 
perfection.  The  word  spirit  is  the  ideal  for  the  everlasting.  It  is  an  embodimen. 
of  love,  and  of  thought,  and  of  truth,  and  of  life,  and  hence  is  felt  to  be  immortalt 
The  spiritual  man  is  hence  a  soul  not  wedded  to  dust,  but  to  truth,  love  and  life. 
To  be  spiritually  minded  is  life.  In  Paul's  grand  religion,  rites  availed  notiiing. 
Circumcision,  baptism,  set  days,  sects  of  Paul  and  ApoUos,  were  all  of  no  moment 
compared  with  that  spiritual  cast  of  the  soul,  able,  like  angels'  wings,  to  bear  man 
to  immortality. 

Look  at  his  second  id^a.  The  oneness  of  humanity !  Oh  sublime  sentiment  I 
Had  Catharine  de  Medici  known  it,  she  would  have  clasped  the  Hugenots  to  her 
bosom  and  said,  "I  love  you  all."  Had  Calvin  felt  its  infinite  tenderness,  he 
would  have  thrown  his  arms  about  Servetus  and  said,  "  Live  and  be  happy,  my 
brother.  I  differ  with  you,  but  love  you."  But  this  idea  must  await  the  birth  of 
democracy. 

Look  at  Paul's  third  idea.  A  new  life,  a  new  creature  1  It  will  be  the 
development  of  this  idea  that  will  announce  the  dawn  of  a  perfect  civilization  and 
a  golden  age. 

The  church  has  tried  the  religion  of  dogmas.  The  Scotch  churches  reached  a 
creed  of  four  thousand  articles,  but  that  church,  and  all  branches  of  all  churches, 
have  furnished  thousands  of  men  for  every  branch  of  dishonesty  and  crime. 

The  men  that  commit  acts  of  crime  and  dishonor,  the  men  who  commit  frauds 
in  the  money  circles,  come,  in  part,  from  the  multitude  that  carry  a  catechism  or 
a  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  All  this  because  religion  has  been  a  form  of  argument 
rather  than  a  shape  of  the  inner  life.  Oh  blessed  age  will  that  be  when  a  holy  life 
shall  be  the  aim  and  significance  of  religion,  and  when  it  shall  be  universally  con- 
fessed that  unless  one  has  the  spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  His. 

But,  passing  all  these,  look  at  Paul's  fourth  passion.  Love  for  Jesus  Christ  I 
I  shall  say  little  here  because  the  measurement  of  words  fail. 


14  ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  GOLDEN  AGE. 

In  sounding  the  sea,  places  were  found  where  the  lead  failed,  and  for  hours 
the  vessel  would  sail  with  the  sounding  line  coiled  on  its  bow,  there  being  no  use 
for  it  in  the  awful  silence  beneath.  Paul's  attachment  to  Jesus  Christ  is  beyond 
our  cold,  feeble  measurement.  For  him  to  live  was  Christ.  To  die  was  gain,  for 
the  soul  joined  its  Friend.  As  children  live  for  the  happiness  that  spring  and 
summer  and  winter  promise  to  their  glad  hearts ;  as  they  long  for  the  morning 
because  of  the  new  pleasure  it  will  bring ;  as  for  them  to  live  is  pleasure ;  as  Pitt 
and  Burke  and  Webster  lived  for  country,  and  honor,  and  human  law ;  as  for 
them  to  live  was  fame  and  greatness,  so  for  Paul  to  live  was  Jesus  Christ.  He 
slept  and  awoke  in  that  sacred  prepossession.  To  die  would  be  gain  because  the 
great  golden  cloud  that  enveloped  him  did  not  belong  to  earth,  but  was  only  the 
outsfcirt  of  a  radiance  that  threw  its  sheen  forward  from  the  vast  sea  of  endless  life. 

My  dear  friends,  measure  these  four  ideas  of  Paul  and  behold  in  them  the 
coming  glory  of  Christianity  and  the  coming  blessedness  of  man.  Liberty  and 
intelligence  are  the  conditions  of  society  that  are  able  to  accept  of  these  four  ideas 
of  religion.  And  as  liberty  and  intelligence  are  gradually  advancing,  so  these 
essentials  of  Christianity  are  rising  more  and  more  upon  the  soul's  horizon. 
Science  cannot  injure  them.  The  welfare  of  society  will  make  men  always  return 
to  them.  They  will  always  prove  too  useful  to  be  destroyed,  too  truthful  to  be 
denied,  too  comforting  in  life  and  in  death  to  remain  unloved. 


A  BROAD  ORTHODOXY. 


"To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places  might  be  known  by 
the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." — Ej>h.,  iii ;  lo. 

The  theme  drawn  from  this  text  for  your  thought  this  morning  is  contained 
chiefly  in  the  words  "manifold  wisdom  of  God."  The  other  ideas  of  the  passage 
may  be  alluded  to  after  this  one  thought  shall  have  been  studied. 

If,  as  some  suppose,  Christianity  is  to  be  all  summed  up  in  any  one  doctrine, 
then  the' Bible  is  an  unusually  large  book  for  so  simple  a  purpose.  But  if  God  has 
made  the  Church  and  the  Bible  a  mirror  in  some  sense  of  His  vast  and  varied 
thought  as  to  the  duty  and  destiny  of  His  children,  then  the  Bible  in  its  immense 
store  of  truth  between  Genesis  and  the  Apocalypse  is  only  a  picture  of  the  mani- 
fold wisdom  of  its  author.  Whoever  reads  the  oracles  of  religion  as  contained  in 
our  Scripture  must  feel  how  fitted  they  are  to  the  many  forms  of  human  want  and 
character.  If  there  are  minds  fond  of  symbols,  they  may  find  all  through  the 
Old  Testament  or  in  the  vision  of  St.  John  a  statement  rendered  almost  wholly  in 
the  language  of  symbolism.  When  we  remember  the  happiness  and  the  knowledge 
which  the  buoyant,  poetic  years  of  youth  reach  through  figures  of  speech  drawn 
from  the  material  world,  we  must  rejoice  that  the  book  which  is  to  influence  their 
moral  career  is  so  full  of  flgurative  language  from  the  Psalms  of  David  to  the  last 
chapter  in  John's  revelation.  Although  an  immense  amount  of  time  and  labor  has 
been  wasted  over  the  eflbrt  to  make  literal  prophecies  out  of  John's  poem  and  to 
find  fulfillment  along  the  path  of  history,  yet,  notwithstanding  this  long  error,  the 
poetic  part  of  the  world  has  extracted  a  great  amount  of  good  theology  from  those 
pages  so  terrific  as  to  the  wicked,  so  glorious  as  to  the  righteous.  From  that  book 
comes  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  White  Throne,  the  Kiver  of  Life,  the  Pearly  Gates, 
the  Crystal  Sea.  When  we  remember  also  what  a  multitude  there  is  of  less  poetic 
and  more  formal  minds,  we  feel  the  value  of  the  great  apostle  who  spoke  always  as 
a  solid  reasoner  with  definite  premises  and  definite  conclusions.  In  the  world 
everywhere  there  is  a  group,  more  limited  indeed,  but  powerful,  who  study  ques- 
tions of  duty  as  between  man  and  man,  and  man  and  God,  and  to  these  what  an 
exhaustless  fountain  of  thought  is  opened  up  in  the  sermons  and  words  of  Jesus. 
Here  the  Quakers  exhaust  their  life  and  love.  This  many-sided  wisdom  of  God  has, 
however,  another  significance  at  which  it  is  our  purpose  more  particularly  now  to 
refer.  There  is  a  many-sidedness  of  doctrine  just  as  marked  as  the  variety  of 
literary  or  logical  style.  We  come  along  with  our  nrdent  desire  to  form  a  catechism 
or  a  formula  that  shall  include  and  evermore  contain  the  wisdom  of  God  to  men, 
but  no  sooner  do  we  close  up  our  estimate  and  prepare  to  rejoice  over  our  work, 
than  along  comes  some  new  student  or  some  new  ago  and  reminds  us  of  something 
important  left  out.  In  his  history  of  Christian  doctrine.  Dr.  Shedd  alludes  to  per- 
haps a  score  of  catechisms,  all  which  sprang  up  within  a  small  area  of  space,  and 
all  which  compilations  differed  from  each  other.     The   variations  of  Protestants 


16  A  BROAD  ORTHODOXY. 

formed  the  theme  of  a  long  and  once  called  powerful  argument  against  the  Prot- 
estant sect.  So  numerous  had  catechism  become  before  the  day  of  John  Knox, 
and  as  varying  as  numerous,  that  he  announced  when  he  published  his,  that  if 
any  friends  discovered  some  point  wherein  it  seemed  to  come  in  contact  with  Scrip- 
ture he  would  change  it  in  the  next  edition.  This  multiplicity  of  confession  of 
faith  must  descend  from  the  fact  that  the  study  of  God  is  too  high  and  too  broad 
for  man,  and  that  after  his  most  patient  effort  he  must  sit  down  over  the  result 
saying,  "Hast  thou  by  searching  found  out  God?  Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty 
to  perfection  ?"  And  next  to  the  infinity  of  God  as  rendering  incomplete  the 
theologies  of  men  comes  the  wonderful  scope  of  human  want  and  character.  There 
are  myriads  of  hearts  and  myriads  of  minds,  and  large  must  be  the  volume  of  truth 
which  shall  offer  food  for  all  at  all  times.  There  have  been  timid,  distrusting  souls 
which  have  gone  through  life  feeding  all  the  way  upon  a  score  of  truths  culled 
from  the  Bible,  which  truths  would  have  been  of  little  price  had  they  been  repeated 
to  the  ear  of  the  extreme  egotist.  There  have  been  sorrowful  souls,  such  as  Cow- 
per,  and  pensive  souls,  such  as  Fenelon,  over  which  has  daily  passed  like  an 
autumnal  sigh  the  breath  of  only  a  few  sad  doctrines,  as  if  the  gorgeousness  of 
summer  had  gone  by  and  nought  remained  but  for  her  faded  leaves  to  fall.  When 
Maria  de-La-Mothe  read  the  Bible  she  never  passed  away  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  seldom  from  the  story  of  Christ  as  related  by  St.  John,  for  her  religion 
being  one  of  love  to  Christ,  she  passed  her  life  where  He  was  nearest  in  His  words 
and  character.     For  her  to  live,  was  Christ. 

This  immense  scope  of  the  Bible,  and  this  similar  breadth  of  human  life,  are 
facts  which  render  it  a  vain  attempt  to  gather  up  Christianity  into  a  catechism, 
and  thus  treasure  it  up  for  ourselves  and  our  children.  A  "Confession  of  Faith" 
can  be  only  an  imperfect  index  of  the  book.  In  some  editions  of  Homer  and  Virgil 
there  stands  an  argumentum  at  the  head  of  each  canto  to  tell  us  what  the  next 
thousand  lines  are  all  about ;  but,  oh  I  how  dead  that  statement  to  the  mind  that 
knows  what  a  world  of  beauty  and  sentiment,  and  of  joy  and  suffering,  is  beyond, 
flashing  in  the  sunshine  of  genius,  and  arrayed  in  the  full  verdure  of  the  heart 
and  the  drapery  of  language. 

When  we  behold  the  magnificence  of  the  world  and  the  greatness  of  man,  and 
then  turn  also  to  the  throne  where  He  sits,  to  whom  earth  and  man  are  both  as 
nought,  we  realize  how  vain  must  be  the  desire  of  the  spirit  to  find  some  symbol 
in  language  which  shall  carry  in  it  the  meaning  of  the  great  book  of  religion  lying 
open  for  the  guidance  and  salvation  of  society.  It  is  amid  some  of  the  manifold 
shadings  to  doctrine  Paul  stands  in  the  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  and  at  the  close 
of  a  most  eloquent  review  he  names  three  virtues,  and  then  declares  charity  to  be 
the  greatest  of  the  three.  Whether  it  is  the  euthusiasm  of  the  orator  or  the  calm 
reason  of  the  philosopher  which  speaks  is  uncertain,  but  this  we  know,  that  he 
places  faith  and  hope  both  in  the  second  place  compared  with  the  heart's  love.  It 
would  seem  to  us  un-Presbyterian  in  any  way  to  slight  the  faith  which  has  so  cov- 
ered itself  with  glory  since  the  reformation,  but  who  ever  reads  the  Bible  with 
any  thoughtfulness  will  often  find  his  favorite  word  quite  overthrown  and  the 
substance  of  things  put  in  its  place.  The  worship  of  words  is  wonderfully  over- 
thrown in  that  book,  and  go  to  what  term  you  please  you  will  soon  hear  the  com- 
mandment, "Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me."  No  sooner  have  you  con- 
cluded that  there  is  nothing  valuable  but  faith  than  along  comes  the  same  Paul 
and  says,  "We  are  saved  by  hope  ;"  and  before  your  soul  becomes  fitted  to  this 
surprise  or  caJi  call  a  council  together  to  announce  "hope"' as  a  samw^r  doctrine, 
the  same  Paul  has  declared  that  charity  is  better  than  either  hope  or  faith ;  and 


A  BROAD   ORTHODOXY.  17 

while  you  stand  amazed  amid  these  heresies  James  comes  along,  and  declares  that 
"by  works  are  ye  saved." 

Now  these  are  not  contradictory  voices,  but  harmonious  tones.  Each  one  of 
these  terms  presents  a  phase  of  Christian  experience.  They  are  colors  in  gorgeous 
moral  landscape.  As  among  the  hills  in  autumn  a  company  of  rambling  friends 
will  say  to  each  other,  "  What  a  blue  in  that  sky  !  what  a  russet  on  that  oak  I 
what  a  crimson  in  those  leaves  1  what  a  saffron  here,  what  a  purple  there  !"  so  in 
the  words  of  God  the  free  mind  turning  its  pages  must  say,  "  What  faith  !  what 
hope  I  what  works  !  what  baptism  !  there  is  in  these  rules  of  life  and  death."  A 
faithful  reading  of  the  Bible  is  the  death  of  all  words  worship.  The  life  and 
salvation  portrayed  in  it  are  so  Godlike  that  they  elude  exact  definition  and  pass 
and  repass  before  us  as  the  heavens  move  over  us  by  night,  with  depths  wo  canuut 
measure,  and  with  stars  we  cannot  count.  Our  books  of  doctrine  are  valuable  as 
outline  indices  of  a  volume  too  large  to  be  fully  mastered  or  retained,  but  com- 
pared to  God's  word  they  are  as  a  skeleton  of  the  dead  body  compared  with  that 
body  itself  when,  robed  in  beauty,  it  greeted  its  friends  in  the  street  or  was  the 
life  of  the  sacred  home. 

The  Baptist  is  a  person  who  sat  down  to  read  the  Testament,  and  who  came 
to  four  or  five  passages  which  informed  him  "  that  he  that  believes  and  is  baptised 
shall  be  saved,"  but  who  paused  before  he  came  to  the  sixth  statement,-  which 
would  have  omitted  the  immersion  and  have  said,  "He  that  believes  shall  be 
saved."  The  Solifldian  is  nothing  but  a  Bible  reader  who,  having  found  five  texts 
that  give  salvation  to  faith  only,  went  away  and  made  up  his  creed  without  wait- 
ing for  any  remarks  from  any  quarter  about  good  works  or  immersion.  The 
Fatalist  is  a  mortal  who  has  turned  the  sacred  book  over  to  find  passages  that 
should  indicate  the  absolute  empire  of  God  and  the  abject  humility  of  man,  and 
fixing  his  whole  gaze  at  last  upon  the  figure  of  "  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter," 
has  announced  the  dogma  "  that  man  is  predestined  to  his  condition  on  account  of 
nothing  he  has  done  or  ever  could  do,  but  solely  by  the  will  of  God ;  while  the 
Arminian  is  one  who  has  read  all  such  words  as  "  come  unto  me,"  "  seek  and  ye 
shall  find,"  "whosoever  will  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely."  Hence,  much 
of  each  creed  is  only  an  indication  to  the  world  as  to  what  part  of  the  Bible  the 
makers  of  it  had  canvassed.  When  a  ship  anchors  at  New  York,  and  begins  to 
unload  a  cargo  of  oranges  and  pineapples,  you  perceive  at  once  that  that  vessel 
does  not  come  in  from  all  nations,  from  Greenland  and  England  and  Germany, 
but  from  some  island  or  port  in  the  Southern  sea.  It  is  thus  in  the  world  of  theol- 
ogy When  you  pick  up  a  confession  of  faith  of  any  Church  and  read  a  few 
pages,  you  perceive  at  once  that  the  book  has  not  come  in  from  all  the  great  Bible 
of  the  Almighty,  but  that  this  particular  ship  has  received  its  cargo  at  Dort,  or 
Nice,  or  Geneva.  Far  be  it  from  you,  I  hope,  to  despise  these  human  compendiums 
of  truth,  for  a  book  is  valuable  if,  in  condensed  form,  it  makes  only  a  tolerable 
estimate  of  the  divine  truth;  fur  going  to  the  Bible  yourself  alone  you  would  not 
be  able  to  deduce  so  full  or  true  a  philosophy  of  life  and  salvation.  When  the 
Westminster  assembly  sat  in  council  for  four  years,  it  is  fairly  presumable  that 
they  summed  up  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  as  would  have  been  impossible  to  the 
world  that  stood  in  vast  multitude  without.  Hence  it  would  be  folly  and  vanity 
not  to  confess  the  value  of  their  great  digest.  But  after  all  this  admiration,  we 
know  that  creeds  are  not  the  places  where  divine  wisdom  fully  expresses  itself, 
but  are  the  places  where  the  human  mind  fails,  places  where  the  mind  gives  up 
and  seeks  rest.  The  creed  of  the  Baptist  only  informs  us  where  the  student 
paused ;  and  the  creed  of  the  Fatalist  only  tells  us  what  verses  he  read.     Thus 


18  A    BROAD    ORTHODOXY. 

paused ;  and  the  creed  of  the  Fatalist  only  tells  us  what  verses  he  read.  Thus 
all  these  compendiums  are  marks  set  up  to  tell  us   where   the  toiler   quit   work. 

Do  you  recall  to  mind,  my  friends,  how  weary  Dr.  Chalmers  became  of  these 
human  forms  in  his  later  years  ?  After  he  had  preached  his  astronomical  sermons, 
and  had  by  scientific  study  begun  to  see  how  vast  a  thing  the  universe  is,  he  seems 
to  have  outgrown  the  mediajval  theology,  and  to  have  placed  great  stress  upon  the 
general  but  unpopular  idea  of  being  a  good  Christian.  In  Dean  Stanley's 
"  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,"  the  historian  says,  "Even  late  in  life  he, 
Chalmers,  was  accused  by  suspicious  zealots  of  being  an  enemy  to  systematic 
theology,  and  his  reply  was  certainly  not  calculated  to  allay  the  alarm."  I  omit 
the  reply.  It  was  in  brief  that  he  preferred  "the  i^ew  Testament."  Who  those 
"  suspicious  zealots  "  were.  Dean  Stanley  does  not  state,  and  perhaps  it  would  be 
impossible  for  any  historian  to  separate  their  names  from  the  oblivion  which  comes 
soon  and  deep  to  minds  that  are  only  "suspicious  zealots"  in  the  great  battle  of  life. 

The  accusation  brought  about  no  reform,  for  in  the  debate  over  the  "Sustenta- 
tion  Fund"  Dr.  Chalmers  exclaimed,  "Who  cares  about  the  Free  Church  compared 
with  the  Christian  good  of  the  people  of  Scotland  ?  Who  cares  about  any  Church 
but  as  an  instrument  of  the  most  Christian  good  ?  For,  be  assured  that  the  moral 
and  religious  well  being  of  the  people  is  of  infinitely  higher  importance  than  the 
advancement  of  any  sect." 

Chalmers  in  one  of  his  broad  discourses  quoted  this  little  frrigment  of  verse: 

"  The  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  His  empire, 
Would  speak  but  love.     With  love,  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  things, 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology." 

These  thoughts  and  this  poetry  from  Dr.  Chalmers,  too,  in  his  glorious  old 
age  I  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  under  the  leadings  of  such  hearts  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  sprang  forward  to  a  great  career.  His  was  not  the  only  wide 
soul  of  that  day.  The  almost  equally  great  Dr.  Duncan  expressed  ideas  equally 
heretical  and  alarming.  He  said :  "There  is  a  progressive  element  in  religion. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  look  upon  our  fathers  as  our  seniors.  They  are  our  juniors.  The 
Church  has  advanced  wonderfully  since  its  foundations  were  laid."  ■»  *  *  "lam 
first  a  Christian,  next  a  broad  Christian,  thirdly  a  Calvinist,  and  fourthly  a  Pres- 
byterian." 

I  have  drawn  these  illustrations  from  history  to  remind  you  that  the  manifold 
glory  of  God  is  too  varied  and  too  vast  to  be  caged  up  in  the  phrases  of  a  few  men 
at  some  given  time  and  place.  Say  what  we  may  in  our  condensed  formulas,  the 
glory  of  God  will  flash  on  in  the  New  Testament  as  though  we  had  taken  nothing 
away  from  its  profusion.  Our  creed  is  a  few  flowers  plucked  from  the  vast  prairie 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Missouri. 

After  you  have  declared  that  one  is  saved  by  only  the  deity  of  Christ,  I  turn 
to  the  book  of  books  and  find  the  disciples  all  busy  with  His  humanity  alone.  And 
after  you  have  cried  out  "faith  alone,"  I  find  Magdalen  much  forgiven  because 
she  had  loved  much,  and  Peter  forgiven  because  of  his  tears  of  penitence,  while 
the  woman  who  emptied  the  alabaster  bos  seemed  blessed  on  account  of  her  good 
works  done  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  The  truth  is,  salvation  seems  like  the  city  of 
Thebes,  entered  by  any  one  of  a  hundred  gates,  all  beautiful  portals  of  marble  or 
bronze,  or  glittering  brass,  but  all  opening  from  the  dreary,  lonely  country  into 
the  splendor  of  society  and  art  and  government.  But  come  in  by  any  gate,  it 
was  Thebes  you  perceived  and  reached.    So  in  religion,  be  the  golden  gate,  faith 


A    BROAD    ORTHODOXY.  19 

or  hope,-  or  charity,  or  penitence,  or  virtue,  it  opens  out  upon  the  presence  of 
Christ.  He  must  be  the  central  object,  the  motive  of  the  footstep,  the  vision  before 
the  eye,  whether  the  eye  is  radiant  with  a  saving  hope  or  bedimmed  with  peniten- 
tial tenrs. 

Now  we  are  informed  in  the  text  that  the  Church  was  organized  to  make 
known  to  principalities  and  power  this  many-colored  wisdom  of  God.  To  the 
raptured  vision  of  St.  Paul,  to  his  elevated  mind,  which  never  took  a  common  view 
of  any  subject,  but  to  which  all  the  truths  of  religion  loomed  up  toward  the  very 
throne  of  the  Almighty,  it  seemed  that  the  Church  was  established  that  it  might 
unfold  the  glory  of  God  before  all  the  potentates  of  earth  and  heaven.  So  grand 
was  this  redemption  of  a  world  to  be,  that  it  seemed  to  Paul  even  the  very  seraphim 
in  heaven  would  look  down  upon  earth  and  see  God's  love  pouring  forth  through 
Jesus  Christ  and  flooding  the  earth,  not  in  wrath  as  in  the  days  of  JlSToah,  but  with 
the  windows  of  heaven  open  for  a  new  outpouring — that  of  infinite  grace. 

As  in  presence,  therefore,  of  an  august  company  which  Paul  calls  "principali- 
ties and  powers,"  and  to  which  we,  less  poetic,  less  divine,  and  more  earthy,  add 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  the  heathen  world,  the  educated  world,  the  skeptical 
world,  as  being  the  "principalities  and  powers"  that  plainly  encompass  us  all, — in 
such  a  presence,  let  us  make  the  Church  a  place  not  where  the  narrowness  and 
vanity  of  man  are  unfolded,  but  where  all  eyes  looking  may  catch  glimpses  of  the 
manifold  wisdom  of  God.  The  manifold  discords  of  man  have  already  made  sad 
havoc  of  this  manifold  wisdom  of  the  Creator  and  Savior.  The  Church  has  been 
so  narrowed  that  it  would  seem  not  ordained  as  a  gate  to  heaven,  but  as  a  wall  to 
keep  the  world  away  trom  its  bliss.  The  principalities  and  powers  looking  down 
from  heavenly  places  must  see  the  tumults  of  sects  rather  than  the  sparkling  sea 
of  redeeming  love.  Oh,  may  these  scenes  hasten  away  from  earth,  and  may  the 
Church  throw  open  all  the  gates  of  life,  that  future  ages  may  see  the  world  coming 
to  salvation  by  many  roads,  some  by  faith,  some  by  love,  some  by  hope,  some  by 
charity,  but  all  by  one  Christ  as  He  is  freely  offered  to  all  in  the  Gospel. 


INFLUENCE   OF   DEMOCRACY  ON 
CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE. 


One  generation  passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh ;  but  the  earth  abideth  forever.    Eccle- 
siastes  i  :  4. 

This  verse  from  the  Bible  is  read,  not  as  a  text  out  of  which  a  discourse  may 
be  developed,  but  rather  as  a  pensive  thought,  which  suggests  a  line  of  reflection, 
perhaps  beyond  the  meaning  of  Holomon,  and  hence  beyond  the  warrant  of  the 
passage.  All  we  claim  for  the  words  is  that  they  invite  the  heart  to  mark  how 
generations  come  and  go,  bearing  away  with  them  their  customs  and  thoughts  in 
part,  and  leaving  the  stage  of  action  clear  for  a  new  scene.  Paul  also  said,  "The 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away."  Cicero  said,  "The  times  are  changed,  and 
we  are  changed  in  them."  Paul  in  his  Corinthian  letter  confesses  that  his  teach- 
ings were  modified  by  the  times  which  he  described  as  being  a  "present  distress." 
The  greatest  Being  of  earth  declared  that  some  Mosaic  customs  were  authorized 
on  account  of  a  local  and  temporary  "hardness  of  heart."  Thus  by  these  voices, 
sacred  and  profane,  we  are  reminded  of  the  changes  taking  place  in  the  internal 
and  external  appearances  of  society,  in  its  dress,  machinery,  arts,  beliefs,  senti- 
ments and  hopes. 

There  are  a  few  mortals  who,  by  some  strange  fatality,  have  escaped  learning 
this  lesson  of  a  changing  world,  and  who  are  ready  to  denounce  as  infidel,  the 
mind  that  presumes  any  part  of  the  past  to  have  become  the  subject  of  repeal. 
Antiquity  is  their  test  of  truth. 

Prom  this  bondage  to  that  which  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  but  its  dust, 
the  majority  of  the  public,  especially  in  cities,  has  escaped,  and  in  their  presence 
there  is  no  longer  need  for  proof  that  the  times  are  always  busy  reshaping  the 
ideas  and  the  things  of  yesterday.  The  same  activity  and  progress  that  are  shap- 
ing the  implements  of  industry  and  the  material  pursuits  of  men,  are  shaping  also 
their  thoughts,  beliefs,  motives  and  hopes. 

The  whole  Mosaic  economy  was  an  adaptation  of  moral  teachings  to  a  parti- 
cular condition,  and  hence,  when  the  Saviour  came,  His  first  work  was  to  remove 
ideas  that  had  lived  beyond  their  proper  time.  The  law  of  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for 
tooth,  the  law  of  divorce,  the  law  of  caste,  were  all  repealed  or  modified  in  answer 
to  the  demands  of  a  new  era. 

We  have  thus  the  highest  authority  of  a  personal  nature  for  confessing  and 
expecting  all  the  ideas  of  men  to  be  modified,  repealed  or  enlarged,  by  the  in- 
fluence of  new  times  and  places.  To  this  authority  of  person,  we  add  the  facts  of 
human  life,  which  go  to  show  that  ideas  are  modified  by  climate,  and  govern- 
ment, and  by  the  popular  education.  What  has  been  useful  in  one  age  has  been 
useless  in  another,  not  because  the  idea  has  ceased  to  be  true,  but  because  it  has 
ceased  to  be  pleasing  to  the  public  heart.  The  doctrine  of  God's  absolute  sover- 
eignity is  just  as  true  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  King  (Edipus  or  of  Calvin.     It  will 


INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.         21 

always  remain  a  confessed  fact,  that  God's  will  must  be  the  supreme  will  of  the 
world,  but  while  this  is  confessed,  yet  we  do  perceive  that  our  age  as  a  fact,  passes 
over  the  great  absolutism  in  silence,  compared  with  the  age  of  Athens  or  Geneva, 
and  God's  love  and  sweet  Fatherhood  become  more  visible  than  His  absolute 
despotism. 

To  pass  by  a  truth,  is  not  to  contradict  it,  nor  despise  it,  any  more  than  to 
study  the  law  is  to  despise  or  deny  the  claim  of  science  or  theology.  To  pass  by  a 
truth  is  often  nothing  else  than  to  sail  by  England  when  your  destiny  is  France, 
or  to  omit  France  when  your  errand  is  to  England.  It  is  not  a  condemnation,  but 
a  selection.  It  is  not  possible  that  any  one  age  shall  make  use  of  all  known  truths 
at  once  and  equally,  for  truth  is  like  a  grand  armory  where  are  stored  all  the 
equipments  for  warfare,  but  from  which  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  every  arm 
and  flag  and  chariot  and  signal  shall  be  withdrawn  at  any  one  time.  The  armory 
is  a  place  to  draw  from,  but  not  to  exhaust. 

The  world  of  truth  is  always  greater  than  the  world  of  men,  and  hence  there 
will  always  be  great  truths  lying  in  silence  and  in  neglect,  like  fields  in  fallow 
waiting  for  some  future  season  that  shall  demand  them  for  a  new  sowing  and 
harvest. 

In  the  realm  of  principles,  as  in  the  old  world  of  the  classics,  there  are  great 
silences  and  solitudes.  In  our  American  continent  there  are  vast  countries  from 
which  man  in  his  civilized  state  long  since  departed,  leaving  behind  him  ruins  of 
former  magnificence,  now  overgrown  with  the  ivy  and  the  cactus.  The  vales  are 
richer  than  New  England,  and  the  climate  fairer  than  that  which  roars  about 
these  lakes,  but  yet  man  has  gone  away,  leaving  traces  of  his  heart  and  mind  in 
the  carved  rocks,  and  terraced  gardens.  Thus  society  marches  away  from  one  part 
of  the  dominion  of  truth,  and,  dying,  leaves  its  children  to  roam  to  some  other 
shore,  perhaps  more  bleak,  perhaps  more  like  to  paradise.  When  one  generation 
passeth  away,  it  will  nearly  always  be  found  that  it  took  a  great  deal  with  it, 
movable  property,  gifts,  relics,  household  gods.  And  when  the  other  generation 
cometh,  lol  in  its  arms  are  strange  new  things,  very  sacred,  and  the  centres  of 
new  hopes  and  action.  Fugitives  from  famine  or  fire,  try  to  carry  with  them 
household  divinities.  Exiled  generations  going  from  life,  have  their  arms  full  of 
customs  and  ideas  that  never  are  seen  again  on  our  shores  —  customs  which  they 
could  assimilate  into  healthy  food  for  the  soul,  but  which  were  rejected  by  their 
children. 

Next  to  the  supersedure  of  truths,  comes  the  expansion  or  contraction  of  ideas 
that  remain.  About  many  moral  statements  there  hangs  always  an  indefiniteness 
that  makes  it  possible  for  each  era  to  expand  or  contract  them.  Physical  truths 
may  be  retained  in  one  form.  At  our  national  Capitol  there  are  standards  of  the 
inch,  the  bushel,  the  quart,  the  pound,  so  that  the  silk  or  grain  of  this  year  may 
be  bought  and  sold  by  the  measurement  agreed  upon  in  the  past.  It  is  said  that 
the  old  kings  of  Egypt  became  so  anxious  that  measurements  in  that  kingdom, 
should  forever  remain  the  same,  that  they  built  the  pyramids,  that  upon  their  im- 
movable sides,  and  in  their  minute  recesses,  the  empire  might  always  find  the 
standard  of  all  surveys  and  measurements,  from  the  miles  of  the  highway,  to  the 
smallest  measure  of  wheat  and  wine.  When  we  come  to  moral  ideas,  however, 
we  are  compelled  to  do  without  any  standards.  There  is  no  stone  pyramid  to 
which  we  can  go  to  adjust  our  line,  no  hollowed  rock  in  which  we  can  pour  our 
quart  of  wine  to  see  if  it  corresponds  to  th«  quart  of  the  Egyptian  kings  of  four 
thousand  years  ago.  There  are  thousands  of  people  who  will  not  confess  this  to  be 
true,  and  who  will  contend  that  they  do  possess  a  stone  pyramid  upon  whose  sides 


22        INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

they  can  measure  all  the  ideas  of  religion  and  duty,  but  after  years  of  careful 
search,  you  will  find  yourself  unable  to  discover  their  pyramid  in  the  objective 
world.     It  is  only  a  mental  structure,  a  life  long  hallucination. 

To  illustrate  this  part  of  our  discourse,  let  us  take  the  idea  of  "Church."  Let 
the  Episcopalians  define  it,  and  certain  demands  are  essential  that  are  rejected  by 
the  Presbyterians.  Let  the  Presbyterian  define  it,  and  he  has  come  into  conflict 
with  the  Baptist  and  the  Covenanter.  Along  come  the  Plymouth  Brethren  and 
define  the  Church  to  be  a  body  of  men  assembling,  for  the  hour,  to  worship.  They 
may  never  assemble  again,  but  while  they  were  together  they  were  a  Church.  Dr. 
Hodge,  the  most  learned  thinker  the  Presbyterians  have  in  this  age,  declares  the 
Church  to  be  in  the  heart,  and  that  each  soul  that  loves  Christ,  is  a  member  of  the 
Church. 

Now  this  is  what  I  mean  by  the  elasticity  of  a  moral  idea.  These  notions  are 
enlarged  or  contracted,  according  to  the  genius  of  the  generation  that  comes  to 
them  here  or  there.  All  moral  ideas,  from  the  conception  of  God,  to  the  most 
humble  duty,  all  doctrines  from  faith,  hope  and  charity,  to  the  notion  of  heaven 
and  hell,  suffer  or  undergo  this  sliding  form  of  measurement,  and  baffle  all  at- 
tempts to  render  a  final  and  exact  expression.  They  are  infinite  in  the  mathema- 
tical sense  of  the  term. 

Having  now  seen  that  ideas  are  wont,  in  some  instances,  to  withdraw  from 
the  human  arena,  and  in  other  instances  to  undergo  limitation  or  expansion,  let  us 
inquire  what  influence  we  should  expect  our  land  to  exert  upon  the  Christian  ideas 
that  have  invaded  it  from  foreign  shores.  That  no  changes  would  be  wrought, 
could  be  believed  only  by  those  who  suppose  themselves  to  possess  the  standards  of 
measurement,  to  own  a  pyramid  of  solid  rock.  This  is  a  small  multitude,  indeed 
not  a  multitude  at  all,  but  a  group.  That  no  changes  would  be  wrought  might  be 
the  opinion  of  persons  giving  no  thought  to  the  matter.  Of  these,  the  multitude  is 
large  indeed.  That  changes,  many  and  valuable,  should  be  expected,  is  certainly 
the  conclusion  of  all  who,  with  free  minds,  pay  any  attention  to  the  common  in- 
fluence of  government  and  climate  and  race  over  the  thoughts  of  mankind.  Just 
what  and  how  many  these  changes  are,  time  would  fail  us  here  to  inquire.  You 
may  at  your  leisure  carry  forward  the  task  we  begin,  and  you  will  find  the  whole 
matter  to  a  high  degree,  pleasing  and  useful. 

Coming  to  a  land  of  gigantic  human  industry,  where  the  motto  is,  each  one 
is  the  builder  of  his  own  fortune,  to  a  land  where  a  farmer  boy  in  Kentucky  bears 
himself  forward  to  the  place  of  chief  orator,  or  where  a  penniless  youth  lifts  him- 
self up  to  be  a  millionaire,  and  a  noble  citizen  ;  and  where  this  is  occuring  all  the 
time,  the  daily  phenomenon  of  the  last  fifty  years,  Christianity  must  expect  its 
fatalism  to  be  shaded,  and  its  doctrine  of  human  freedom  and  responsibility  to 
stand  forth  in  a  more  brilliant  light.  The  surrender  of  all  things  to  God,  the 
resolution  of  life  into  a  waiting  for  fate,  or  into  a  machine  that  was  powerless  to 
go  or  to  stop  of  itself,  was  a  conception  of  God  suited  to  an  age  when  citizens  pos- 
sessed no  liberty  as  to  their  state,  and  no  industry  as  to  changing  their  fortune  or 
fame  or  happiness.  An  idle  country,  and  an  oppressed,  powerless  country,  always 
underrate  the  human  will,  and  overstate  the  Divine  interference.  Having  been 
denied  the  privilege  and  opportunity  of  toiling  for  self,  men  have  at  last  resolved 
self  into  despair,  and  God  into  an  absolute  despot. 

A  free  country  where  the  human  will  and  personality  rise  up  into  such  grand 
proportions,  is  the  land  that  might  b6  expected  to  transform  man  into  a  being  of 
personal  power,  and  God  into  a  Father,  acting  in  harmony  with  His  children. 
The  monks  in  their  cells,  the  middle  ages  in  their  bondage  to  kings,  priests  and 


INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.         23 

ignorance,  possessed  no  great  consciousness  of  free  agency,  and  hence  that  was  the 
generation  to  ignore  man,  and  to  enthrone  a  pitiless  fate  under  the  name  of  God  ; 
hut  the  age  which,  in  a  perfectly  free  country,  permits  every  man  to  carve  out  for 
himself  a  happiness,  and  education,  and  fame,  is  the  age  to  develop  the  conscious- 
ness of  free  agency,  and  hence  the  age  to  bind  more  nearly  together,  man  and 
God,  as  acting  in  concert.  Political  freedom  develops  the  human  consciousness 
of  free  will  and  responsibility. 

This  perpetual  industry  amid  external  pursuits,  also  diverts  the  mind  from 
the  study  of  mysteries,  to  the  acceptance  and  enjoyment  of  facts,  and  hence  the 
public  mind  turns  away  from  predestination  and  reprobation  and  absolutism,  not 
simply  because  it  has  developed  a  consciousness  of  freedom,  but  also  because  in  the 
long  association  with  facts,  it  has  lost  love  for  the  study  of  the  incomprehensible^ 
in  both  religion  and  philosophy.  In  this  casting  off  of  old  garments,  it  no  more 
cheerfully  throws  away  the  inconceivable  of  Christianity,  than  the  inconceivable 
of  Kant  and  Spinoza.  In  this  abandonment,  there  is  no  charge  of  falsehood  cast 
upon  the  old  mysteries ;  they  may  or  may  not  be  true ;  there  is  only  a  passing 
them  by  as  not  being  in  the  line  of  the  current  wish  or  taste,  raiment  for  a  past 
age,  perhaps  for  a  future,  but  not  acceptable  in  the  present. 

Out  of  this  enlargement  of  the  office  of  man's  free  will,  have  come  the  great 
missionary  movements,  and  the  Sunday  and  ragged  schools  of  our  land.  The 
philosophy  of  waiting  for  God  lias  been  quite  superseded  by  the  enormous  develop- 
ment of  industry  and  free- agency  that  our  land  has  produced.  Man  is  raised,  not 
to  a  state  of  vanity,  but  of  responsibility.  He  feels  that  God  waits  for  His  children 
to  come  to  His  help  against  the  mighty.  Here  and  there  a  fatalist  remains  to 
remind  us  of  the  stupor  and  palsy  of  antiquity.  A  Cincinnati  clergyman  has 
recently  published  a  labored  article  to  show  that  Christianity  is  spreading  as 
rapidly  as  God  desires,  and  that  all  human  efforts  to  hasten  the  world's  evangeliza- 
tion are  vain  and  presumptuous  ;  but  this  ignoring  of  man's  office  as  a  co-laborer 
of  God  on  earth,  this  assumption  of  man's  living  death  is  a  phenomenon  appearing 
but  rarely  on  the  horizon  of  our  republic.  Types  of  men,  like  types  of  birds  or 
beasts,  pass  away  slowly,  as  sometimes  an  individual  creature  is  found  after 
science  has  declared  the  species  to  have  become  entirely  extinct.  Thus  types  of 
belief  die  slowly. 

That  God  has  assigned  man  a  work  to  do  here  in  this  vale,  and  that  He  has 
equipped  man  for  doing  it,  is  an  idea  cast  forward  greatly  by  a  republic  full  of 
human  freedom  and  human  achievements.  A  religion  of  repose  is  killed  by  a 
politics  of  activity. 

Permit  me,  therefore,  to  assume  that  our  republic  has  tended  toward  the 
overthrow  of  the  ideas  of  human  insignificance  and  of  fatality,  and  of  simple 
divine  despotism;  and,  transforming  God  into  a  Father,  has  made  man  a  co- 
laborer  without  whose  assistance  the  moral  world  pauses  just  as  the  plow  stands 
still  when  man  deserts  the  field  for  a  life  of  indolence,  Man's  relations  to  morals 
and  to  agriculture  are  the  same  so  far  as  human  vision  can  scan  the  landscape. 

Passing  by  this  illustration  of  the  influence  of  our  land  upon  religious  ideas 
we  may  find  another  example  in  the  distinction  now  made  between  doctrines,  a 
discrimination  that  divides  them  rapidly  in  essential  and  non-essential  ideas.  In 
the  past,  not  remote,  not  only  was  there  a  vast  multitude  of  dogmas,  but  they  were 
all  deemed  very  vital.  To  hold  to  apostolic  succession  or  to  immersion,  or  to 
psalmody,  or  to  infant  baptism,  or  to  the  divineness  of  slavery,  was  deemed  a  large 
part  of  soul  salvation.     A  free  soil  politician  was  an  infidel,  and  on  the  opposite' 


24        INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAIS  DOCTRINE. 

a  slave-holder  had  a  poor  prospect  of  heaven.  Here  we  need  not  particularize. 
You  all  know  by  heart  all  this  black  page  in  church  history. 

Well,  along  came  a  country  in  which  everything  was  destined  to  be  vast.  It 
embraced  every  climate,  every  wood,  every  ore,  every  grain,  and  fruit.  Its  waters 
assumed  every  shape  from  ocean  to  lake,  from  mighty  river  to  mountain  brook. 
Its  railways  were  to  run  three  thousand  miles  in  a  straight  line,  and,  starting 
among  New  England  pines,  to  end  among  Pacific  orange  groves.  All  nations 
were  to  meet  in  the  citizens  of  this  new  world.  Over  this  land  so  vast  there  was 
to  float  a  banner  of  freedom  and  equality,  education  and  industry.  Such  was  to 
be  the  character  of  the  new  realm  except  that  words  are  not  able  to  paint  the 
image  in  the  prophecy.  In  the  gradual  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy,  which  has 
already  gone  beyond  the  promise,  it  readily  came  to  pass  that  all  that  is  small  in 
religion  began  to  become  manifest  as  such.  The  daily  struggle  amid  great  things, 
with  the  heart  full  of  only  leading  ideas,  built  up  early  a  special  sense  that  could 
discern  the  large  and  the  small  in  wealth,  in  machinery,  in  agriculture,  in  character 
and  in  Christianity.  Ideas  that  had  once  been  immense  underwent  great  reduction 
in  this  uprising  of  thought,  and  ideas  in  themselves  infinite,  such  as  Christ,  and 
worship,  and  faith,  charity,  virtue,  these,  vast  as  the  oceans  around  and  the 
continent  between  them,  came  at  once  into  power,  not  by  accident,  but  by  the 
command  of  a  land  of  vast  spirit  and  destiny.  The  whole  drift  of  the  country  was 
toward  a  sifting  of  thoughts. 

Not  only  did  the  vastness  of  the  land  toil  towards  this  result,  but  the  internal 
genius  of  it  by  which  a  hundred  nations  were  contributing  different  races  and 
tongues  to  be  moulded  into  one  brotherhood,  made  it  essential  that  ideas  in  which 
the  multitudes  diflTered  should  be  speedily  forgotten,  and  that  those  in  which  they 
agreed  only  should  be  remembered  and  cherished. 

Now,  the  essential  ideas  of  morals  and  salvation,  are  the  ones  in  which  only 
most  minds  agree,  and  hence  the  nature  of  the  case  united  with  the  vast  spirit  of 
the  country  in  exalting  the  great  trilths  of  Christianity  and  in  lulling  to  sleep  the 
infantine  dogmas.  These  are  not  condemned  as  wholly  useless,  much  less  as  false, 
but  are  passed  by  as  if  in  a  sweet  sleep,  which  it  were  cruelty  to  disturb. 

There  are  truths  in  Christianity  of  infinite  worth.  Without  them,  the  soul  is 
lost.  With  them  it  passes  along  the  paths  of  usefulness  here,  and  comes  beyond  to 
paradise.  It  ought  to  have  been  anticipated  that  a  land  like  this,  trained  in  an  air 
of  greatness,  and  seeking  also  a  brotherhood  that  would  bind  many  minds  in  its 
silken  links,  would  find  the  absolute  essentials  in  Christian  doctrine  and  give  them 
its  hand  and  heart.  It  has  done  so  beyond  anticipation,  and  in  its  arms,  loving 
and  omnipotent,  it  is  bearing  us  along,  compelling  us  to  accept  of  her  destiny  as 
our  own.  It  is  vain  we  were  taught  the  Calvinistic  creed,  for  we  perceive  the 
Arminian  is  borne  along  equally  toward  heaven.  It  is  vain  we  were  taught 
the  Arminian  creed,  for  we  perceive  the  Calvinist  is  just  as  far  toward  God's  love 
and  bliss.  O  beautiful  disregard  of  names  I  The  country  in  declaring  all  men 
to  be  one,  and  in  its  greatness  and  in  its  effort  to  make  a  brotherhood  in  society, 
has  invaded  the  domain  of  the  spirit,  and,  plucking  our  badges  from  our  bosom, 
has  whispered,  "You  are  all  one  brotherhood,  also  in  religion."  Thus  have  we 
built  up  a  state  whose  soul  has  outgrown  the  body  politic  and  has  marched  into 
the  temple  of  God.  We  remember  now  the  German  cottager's  dream.  His  humble 
cot,  while  he  slept,  lifted  up  its  rafters  and  became  a  cathedral.  The  chimney 
became  a  spire.  The  windows  became  gothic  and  filled  with  colored  glass.  His 
fireplace  became  an  altar,  and  his  children,  living  and  gone,  became  seraphim 
bending  over  that  mercy-seat. 


INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE.        25 

Thus  while  you  and  1  sleep  our  state  becomes  a  sanctuary.  Its  liberty,  its  free 
will,  its  greatness  of  idea,  its  equality  of  man,  its  brotherhood,  all  enter  our  once 
humble  abode  and  lift  it  all  upward  and  outward  as  in  the  transformation  of  that 
German  dream. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  state  to  be  engaged  making  us  brothers  and  the  church 
to  be  engaged  making  us  enemies  and  strangers.  One  of  the  other  effort  must 
abandon  the  field.  The  church  bows  justly  to  the  spirit  of  the  Republic.  In  India, 
two  communion  tables  are  spread  so  that  the  converted  Brahmin  may  not  touch 
the  cup  the  poor  native  of  low  caste  has  polluted.  This  is  an  easy  result  in  India, 
but  where  the  state  makes  all  one,  then  religion  also  hastens  to  accept  of  the 
harmony. 

You  may,  my  friends,  at  your  leisure,  seek  and  find  further  instances  of  this 
modification  of  Christian  belief  by  the  new  surroundings  of  government.  Christian 
customs  will  also  be  modified  along  with  the  creed.  Not  that  something  abso- 
lutely better  will  always  be  found,  but  something  more  demanded  by  the  accidents 
of  the  time.  The  themes  of  the  pulpit  will  always  be  assigned  afresh  by  each  new 
generation.  "When  our  catechisms  were  being  written,  the  chief  enemy  upon  the 
horizon  was  the  Eomanist  full  of  error  and  cruelty,  and  hence  many  are  the  darts 
aimed  by  the  Westminster  soldiers  at  the  papal  hosts.  With  the  overthrow  of 
the  papal  throne  new  arrows  and  armor  are  demanded  for  new  foes.  The  field  of 
battle  shifts  from  Paul  to  Genesis.  The  thumb-screw  of  the  inquisition  is  not  so 
much  feared  as  the  spade  of  the  geologist.  The  mass  and  prayers  for  the  dead  are 
not  so  alarming  as  the  crucible  of  the  chemist.  It  is  not  Arius  and  Arminius  now 
that  we  fear.  It  is  Darwin  and  Buckle.  New  methods  also  arise.  Once  it  was 
enough  if  the  pulpit  brought  out  to  the  multitude  the  statements  found  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  but  now  the  public  has  learned  what  is  in  the  Scriptures,  they  ask  us 
to  prove  that  the  Scriptures  are  holy.  To  unfold  the  text  was  the  easy  task  of  our 
fathers  ;  to  find  the  warrant  of  the  text  is  the  more  difficult  work  of  their  children. 
A  new  method  divested  of  authority  and  weighed  down  with  rationalism  and 
doubt,  has  gradually  displaced  the  authoritative  declaration  and  warning  of  yester- 
day. Christ  comes  not  announced  by  a  simple  herald,  but  led  by  a  spiritual  and 
intellectual  philosophy.  The  soul  is  asked  to  receive  its  own  in  the  name  of  vir- 
tue, pardon  and  future  life.  The  banner  of  the  cross  is  borne  by  the  impulse  of  its 
own  fitness  and  beauty,  rather  than  by  the  command  of  Buller  and  Paley.  When 
Tyndall  flies  to  the  light,  and  heat,  and  dust,  Christianity  flies  to  the  soul.  Thus  you 
will  find  that  the  public  education  has  awakened  a  broader  inquiry  into  branches 
of  learning  connected  in  some  way  with  theology,  and  henca  the  pulpit  is  com- 
pelled to  discuss  themes  that  were  foreign  to  its  office  a  few  years  since.  With  the 
growth  of  rationalism,  it  must  more  carefully  separate  the  true  from  the  false  to 
meet  the  new  love  of  the  real  truth  and  the  new  ridicule  of  all  superstition  and 
folly.     The  truth  will  no  longer  bear  a  great  admixture  of  falsehood. 

In  this  republic  of  equality  that  places  the  rich  and  poor,  the  laborer  and  the 
clergyman,  upon  one  plane,  the  whole  language  of  abuse  and  denunciation  has  been 
banished  from  the  sacred  desk,  so  that  Thomas  Paine,  if  now  alive,  would  enjoy 
the  undreamed  of  pleasure  of  hearing  his  objections  met  by  hearts  of  sympathy 
and  tenderness,  rather  than  by  the  hisses  of  an  age  full,  equally,  of  vanity  and 
revenge.  Compared  with  former  generations  this  one,  most  of  all,  discards  the 
power  of  personal  egotism  based  upon  peculiar  training  in  peculiar  lines  of 
thought,  and,  oficring  the  right  hand,  says  with  a  friendship  that  would  have 
melted  an  old  infidel  to  tears,  "Come  let  us  reason  together." 

But  time  fails  me.     There  are  some  general  statements  I  desire  yet  to  make. 


26        INFLUENCE  OF  DEMOCRACY  ON  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

There  need  be  no  alarm  about  this  abrasion  of  an  old  shore  by  a  new  wave,  for 
we  know  that  what  the  waters  are  stealing  from  some  old  bank  where  men  have 
ceased  to  live,  they  are  depositing  elsewhere  and  making  new  homes  for  a  better 
race,  new  streets  for  greater  cities.  The  wave  that  carries  something  away  always 
gives  something  back  elsewhere  to  mankind.  The  coast  changes,  not  the  sea. 
And  furthermore  the  abrasions  upon  the  old  shore  are  limited,  for  the  encroaching 
sea  deals  only  with  alluvium  or  drift,  and,  having  swept  this  clean  by  a  hundred 
years'  toil,  it  finds  at  last  an  admantine  rock — an  iron-bound  coast  where  the 
waters  cease  their  destruction,  and,  their  work  done,  praise  God  in  peace  or  storm. 

"And  all  through  winter's  storm  and  summer's  calm. 
They  rise  and  fall  an  everlasting  psalm." 

Thus  Christianity  possesses  within  itself,  in  its  central  Christ  and  doctrines,  a 
coast,  iron-bound,  where  all  waves  of  thought  must  pause  and  become  an  anthem 
of  divine  praise,  full  of  human  hope  and  human  gratitude. 

In  this  rise  and  full  of  ideas  it  is  not  very  wonderful  that  we  perceive  no  great 
commotion,  and  nowhere  in  orthodox  denominations  perceive  any  arraignment  of 
individuals  for  departures  from  the  faith.  This  absence  of  trials  for  heresy  comes, 
not  simply  from  the  fact  that  there  is  little  heresy  in  the  case,  for  this  has  never 
been  an  influential  fact,  but  this  wide  and  deep  peace  comes  from  two  other  facts, 
first,  that  the  age  bears  all  its  ministry  toward  the  essential  ideas  and  absorbs 
them  at  these  points ;  and,  second,  that  so  far  as  there  are  any  new  departures 
thev  are  universal  rather  than  individual.  If  they  were  the  new  departures  of  one 
man  there  would  be  trial  and  discord,  but  they  are  the  modifications  of  a  whole 
generation,  rather  than  the  light  of  any  individual.  Whatever  there  is  of  the  new 
in  the  present  it  has  come  to  all  equally  and  gently  as  the  dew  in  the  night.  The 
jury  is  particeps  criniinis  in  the  great  case. 

,So  far  as  my  own  vision  can  penetrate,  and  judgment  infer,  the  pastors  of  this 
city  in  the  denomination  to  which  I  belong,  are  of  one  mind  in  theological  ques- 
tions. It  may  be  that  some  surpass  others  in  admiration  of  the  German  maxim 
that  "Silence  is  golden,"  and  hence,  have  a  better  developed  virtue  of  reticence, 
but  to  me,  in  an  intimate  acquaintaince  with  all,  they  seem  all  borne  along  in  the 
wide  arms  of  a  country  that  has  been  the  instrument  under  God,  of  revealing  to 
them  all  the  breadth  and  kindness  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Generation  passetli  away,  and  generation  cometh.  This  means  that  you  will 
all  soon  become  dust.  The  great  invisible  arms  that  are  carrying  religion  and 
all  ideas  along,  are  carrying  your  body  to  its  place  in  the  waving  grass,  and  your 
spirit  back  to  God.  Oh  my  friends,  love  that  religion,  that  by  command  of  God, 
fits  itself  so  well  to  our  country,  our  happiness,  our  life,  our  death.  Say  not  it 
was  for  the  past.  Its  superstition  was  for  that,  its  truth  is  for  the  present  and 
future.  It  assumes  the  image  of  the  soul,  and  hence,  was  made,  not  for  woman 
and  for  childhood,  but  for  the  human  race.  Our  state  builds  up  liberty,  Chris- 
tianity absorbs  the  idea  and  advances  to  freedom  of  the  spirit.  Our  state  demands 
public  virtue.  Christianity's  favorite  maxim  is,  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart." 
Our  state  loves  humanity.  Christianity  silently  points  to  Jesus  Christ.  Pass  it 
not  by.  Oh  may  this  generation,  while  it  is  passing  along,  number  among  its 
transformations,  the  transformation  of  your  hearts  into  the  image  of  the  Saviour, 
that  when,  after  a  few  years,  it  shall  have  strewn  all  your  bodies  like  autumn 
leaves  upon  the  earth,  it  may  waft  your  spirits,  redeemed  and  sanctified,  back  to 
your  Maker. 


THE  WORLD^S  GREAT  NEED. 


Ye  must  be  bom  again. — yohn  iii.  7. 

The  great  pursuit  of  the  wisest  and  best  men  that  have  ever  lived,  has 
lieen  to  help  onward  and  upwards  the  morals  of  the  people.  By  common  consent 
the  names  of  Socrates,  Seneca,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  Penn, 
George  Fox,  are  the  grandest  of  names.  Besides  such  stars  of  fame,  the  lustre  of  a 
captain  in  bloody  war,  or  of  a  Cresus,  or  Rothschild,  fades  away  as  glow-worms 
at  sunrise.  Nations  have  always  looked  with  love  and  confidence  upon  their 
moralists.  Mark  the  Chinese  love  for  Confucius,  and  American  love  for  the 
morals  of  Washington  and  Franklin.  There  is  a  common  feeling  that  in  such 
men  lie  the  reasons  for  national  success,  and  the  basis  of  security.  Out  of  them 
seem  to  issue  the  nation's  moral  life,  as  the  tree  grows  from  rich  soil. 

Now  what  is  it  that  exalts  these  few  moralists?  What  is  it  that  determines 
at  once  that  such  men  are  the  jewels  of  their  century,  or  State  ? 

Morals  do  not  please  as  does  music,  painting,  or  eloquence.  Morals  do  not 
make  us  laugh  or  weep  ;  and  hence  Paul,  and  Daniel,  and  Luther,  and  Fox,  must 
be  lifted  up  in  the  world's  esteem  by  some  new  and  peculiar  kind  of  fact. 

It  seems  to  me  wo  find  this  fact  in  the  public  conviction  of  the  utter  depravity 
of  the  masses,  and  in  the  public  approval  of  any  soul  that  can  or  will  help  a 
depraved  race  upward.  Paul  is  loved  the  more  because  the  world  feels  deeply 
that  such  morals  are  a  stranger  to  it,  and  yet  are  its  only  hope.  Suppose  the 
world  to  have  been  quite  free  from  sin,  Paul's  moralizing  would  have  been  with- 
out significance.  Martyn's  trip  to  Persia  would  have  been  only  the  roamings  of 
a  traveler. 

It  is  the  world's  confessed  wickedness,  it  is  the  world's  universal  and  inborn 
depravity  that  makes  the  Christian  and  moral  leaders  flame  like  suns  in  the 
human  sky.  The  fame  of  every  such  man  as  Paul,  or  Socrates,  or  Seneca  is  a 
public  confession  of  depravity.  Those  men  are  thrown  up  by  a  great  want. 
Their  fame  is  the  confession  of  old  sorrow,  old  grief,  old  tears.  It  is  the  awful 
fact  of  universal  sin  that  renders  these  names  so  precious.  Their  wreaths  are 
woven  by  the  fingers  of  sorrow.  What  rendered  the  life  and  words  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  so  beautiful?  It  was  the  fact  that  not  a  living  mortal  known  to  the 
whole  Roman  world  had  lived,  or  could  live  after  that  fashion.  He  was  bright  by 
reason  of  the  dark  background. 

It  is  not  worth  while,  therefore,  to  quarrel  with  the  Bible  when  it  says,  "  I  was 
born  in  iniquity  ;"  "the  heart  is  deceitful :"  "the  heart  is  desperately  wicked;'" 
and  "man  must  bo  born  again."  The  conspicuousness  of  Christ,  of  Paul,  of 
Penn,  of  the  great  Elliott  among  the  Indians,  shows  that  the  Bible  is  only  a 
picture   of  human   life,  and   that  men  do  need  to  "be  born  again."     You  may 


28  THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  NEED. 

quarrel  with  theologians  if  you  wish,  who  have  taken  Bible  texts  into  their  labra- 
tories,  and  have  re-appeared  after  long  stirring  of  the  crucible,  having  in  their 
hands  some  strange  compound  of  mysterious  color  and  questionable  use ;  but  with 
the  plain  Bible — with  its  words,  "Ye  must  be  born  again" — let  us  have  no  debate. 
It  was  the  effort  of  the  old  chemists  to  turn  all  things  into  gold,  but  the  old 
theologians  seemed  to  have  possessed  the  faculty  of  changing  gold  into  all  things 
else ;  and  taking  a  pure,  priceless  truth  from  the  Bible  were  wont,  unconscious  of 
its  worth,  to  join  it  to  their  amalgam,  and  then  emerge  with  a  poor  oroid — their 
very  faces  meanwhile  crying  out  the  old,  "Eureka."  "With  these,  one  may  dispute, 
but  as  for  the  simple  words  of  the  Bible,  they  are  the  picture  of  the  world's  facts. 
They  are  the  mirror,  which  reflects  back  to  us  nothing  but  our  face  with  no 
deformity,  or  charm  left  out.  Those  words  are  deeply  written  on  all  the  genera- 
tions, and  their  meaning  is  only  too  vivid.  It  makes  the  heart,  and  the  head  to 
ache.  Let  us  confess  that  one  of  the  most  prominent  facts  of  society  is  its  moral 
weakness,  its  depravity.     It  ought  to  "be  born  again." 

It  is  generally  assumed  that  a  child  is  born  with  certain  mental  predispo- 
sitions ;  with  a  gift  for  language,  for  mechanics,  for  poetry,  for  reasoning.  Hence 
it  was  said  thousands  of  years  ago,  "A  poet  is  not  made  by  study,  he  is  born."  The 
great  English  dramatist  says,  "  llow  hard  it  is  to  hide  the  sparks  of  nature." 
Another  says,  "ligature  may  lie  hid  for  a  time,  but  at  last  she  will  reveal  herself." 
Thus  it  has  always  been  assumed,  that  when  one  is  born  he  is  hurled  into  a  certain 
orbit  where  he  must  journey  forever,  as  calmly,  and  resistlessly  as  the  planets. 

This  sentiment  is  not  true  to  the  letter,  but  it  shows  what  Christ  meant  when 
He  said,  "Ye  must  be  born  again."  He  meant  that  the  soul  must  be  hurled  into 
being  a  second  time.  Its  first  life  was  a  failure.  It  ought  to  be  reborn  so  that  a 
new  genius,  a  new  drift  might  be  possible. 

Oh  !  what  a  vast  change  is  here  indicated — a  change  in  the  depths  of  our 
nature — a  tearing  down  and  re-building  of  the  very  soul. 

Now  the  world's  greatest  fact  being  its  degradation,  its  greatest  want  is  to  be 
expressed  by  the  word  "recreation,"  or  "reborn." 

This  is  the  world's  great  want.  It  is  its  greatest  want — this  reconstruction  of 
the  human  soul  so  that  it  will  no  longer  love  to  lie,  nor  cheat,  nor  sin  in  any  form, 
but  will  love  God,  and  all  moral  beauty.  Even  old  Egypt,  thousands  of  years  ago 
taught  her  citizens  that  after  death  the  soul  stood  before  God,  and  a  Council  of 
two  and  forty  just  men,  and  had  to  make  the  following  statement :  "I  have  not 
blasphemed.  I  have  not  stolen.  I  have  not  stirred  up  strife.  I  have  not  slan- 
dered any  one.  I  have  not  practiced  any  crime.  I  have  given  food  to  the  hungry, 
drink  to  the  thirsty,  clothes  to  the  naked."  Unless  the  soul  could  make  this  state- 
ment truly,  it  was  at  once  stricken  from  existence  ;  but  if  it  could  make  this  state- 
ment truly  it  went  to  heaven.  These  creeds  Champollion  has  deciphered  from  old 
carved  rocks  unread  for  years,  far  in  the  thousands. 

Yes,  the  great  want  of  earth  is  a  society  living  in  honor,  and  virtue ;  loving 
God,  and  mankind.  Such  a  result  would  be  Heaven.  To  approach  it,  and  finally 
reach  it,  is  the  mission  of  religion. 

There  are  several  Christian  sects  that  do  not  sufliciently  magnify  this  idea  of 
conversion,  or  new  life.  They  believe  in  it,  but  do  not  m.ake  it  the  great  central 
thought  of  their   teaching.     With  the  Methodists,  and  Presbyterians,  and  their 


THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  NEED.  29 

kindred  schools,  the  first  effort  is  to  help  convert  men,  and  hence  their  great  ques- 
tion to  the  candidate  for  membership  is,  "Do  you  feel  that  you  have  undergone  a 
change  of  heart ;  do  you  hate  sin  ;  do  you  love  holiness  ?"  And  persons  enter  the 
Church,  or  remain  out,  according  to  the  responses  to  these  inquiries.  It  matters 
not  if  some  assert  a  change  who  have  really  met  with  none,  and  if  some  assert  a 
falsehood  knowingly.  The  questions  are  exactly  in  the  line  of  the  world's  reform ; 
they  are  the  great  questions  to  be  asked,  and  hence  the  religion  tbat  most  patiently 
asks  them,  and  most  lovingly  seeks  affirmative  answers,  will  always  secure  better 
results  than  a  Church  that  passes  them  by  in  silence,  and  assumes  that  all  is  well 
in  the  soul. 

The  perpetual  effort  to  build  up  a  new  spiritual  life,  the  unchanging  conviction 
that  soul  needs  a  profound  reform  now,  and  the  accompanying  belief  that  such  a 
new  drift  of  being  may  be  found  by  the  heart,  has  all  the  advantage  to  be  found  in 
all  direct  effort  toward  a  result.  The  pure  rationalist  will  assure  you,  that  the 
quantity  of  education,  or  wealth  in  a  land  will  be,  as  the  quantity  of  zeal,  and 
longing,  and  will-power  in  those  two  directions.  "We  are  informed,  that  the  good 
elocution  of  a  Greek  orator,  was  the  result  of  long  conflict  with  a  natural  foe,  and 
that  the  culture  of  all  Greece,  was  the  result  of  a  national  zeal  along  one  narrow 
channel  of  feeling,  and  thought.  From  the  universality  of  such  facts,  has  grown 
up  the  maxim  that  "the  gods  help  those  who  help  themselves."  In  a  world  subject 
to  such  a  law,  it  is  cruel  to  strike  from  religion  the  intense  longing  for  a  new  heart, 
and  the  absorbing  belief  in  its  necessity,  and  then  wait  for  moral  progress  to  come 
in  by  some  unknown  gate. 

It  has  counted  wonderfully  in  the  race  of  usefulness  that  the  Methodists,  for 
example,  have  for  one  hundred  years,  turned  their  longings  and  efforts  toward  the 
immediate  reconstruction  of  the  human  spirit.  Notwithstanding  the  weakness  of 
shoutings,  and  the  frequent  discord  in  their  old  hymns,  the  long  pursuit  of  a  better 
life  has  given  at  last  to  our  land,  millions  of  the  best  citizens.  The  Presbyterians 
present  a  similar  spectacle.  Guilty  often  of  fanaticism — guilty  of  midnight  meet- 
ings, and  of  falling  to  the  floor  in  the  struggle  with  the  old  Satan,  they  have 
nevertheless  surpassed  rationalistic  methods  in  the  great  work  of  recasting  the 
soul.  In  some  of  the  villages  of  Persia,  there  Is  to-day  a  sudden,  and  vast  reform 
taking  place  under  the  mission  banners,  in  the  name  of  the  actual  pursuit  of  a 
egenerate  heart.  "What  men  seek,  they  find.  Only  that  gate  opens  at  which  men 
knock. 

It  is  useless  to  reply,  ""We  do  not  believe  in  a  miraculous  conversion  of  the 
soul,  but  only  in  a  conversion  brought  about  by  study,  will-power,  hymns,  and 
prayer;"  for  it  is  of  a  change  of  heart  only  I  speak,  I  have  said  nothing  about 
the  agent  in  the  new  creation.  The  pure  rationalists  believe  in  a  "changed"  heart, 
and  would  seem  bound,  therefore,  to  make  this  "new  heart"  a  vital  thing  in  their 
Church  life.  For  it  is  the  world's  greatest  want,  its  greatest  longing,  its  only 
hope.  Some  orthodox  sects  pursue  with  more  zeal  this  one  object — the  transforma- 
tion of  the  heart— and  hence  seem  to  be  more  in  the  path  of  the  highest  human 
duty — more  fully  in  the  path  of  reform. 

From  Dr.  Ryder's*  letters,  you  will  perceive  that  his  philosophy  believes  in  a 
new  heart,  but  in  securing  this  new  heart,  instead  of  increasing  the  labor,  and 

*  Referring  to  a  correspondence  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  between  Wm.  Ryder,  D.  D.,  of  St.  Paul's 
(Universalist)  Church,  and  E.  O.  Burgess,  D.  D.,  of  the  Christian  Church,  growing  out  of  a  sermon 
preached  by  the  former  on  Rev,  George  H.  Hepworth's  renunciation  of  Unitarianism. 


30  THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  NEED. 

whole  pressure  in  this  life,  he  prolongs  the  time.  He  diminishes  the  power,  and 
doubles  the  time.  He  allows  us  future  centuries  upon  the  other  shore  in  which  to 
come  to  a  harmony  with  God.  But  the  orthodox  limit  us  to  a  few  years  here,  and 
hence  pursue  with  more  enthusiasm,  and  with  deepest  feeling  the  work  of  reform- 
ing their  fellow  men.  They  shorten  the  time,  and  double  the  impulse  ;  and  when 
we  remember  that  what  this  world  needs  is  good  men  on  this  side  of  the  grave, 
rather  than  saints  on  the  other,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  orthodoxy  is  the  best  friend 
of  the  life  that  now  is.  "When  we  consider  that  the  great  enemy  of  society  is  sin, 
the  religion  that  makes  a  change  of  heart  its  chief  object,  seems  evidently  the 
better  ono  for  the  great  end.  Only  those  efforts  count  in  the  progress  of  the  cent- 
uries, which  harmonize  with  the  world's  great  need — which  become  parts  of  God's 
work — parts  of  the  development  and  growth  of  humanity. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that  education,  books,  art,  reason  help  to  convert  the 
soul — to  change  it — hence  all  enlightened  pulpits  are  full  of  usefulness.  But  when 
to  these  influences  a  Church  adds  an  additional  effort,  pointed  and  urgent  to 
convert  the  heart,  it  may  well  claim  a  special  usefulness.  A  Church  will  be  useful 
according  to  the  depth  of  its  realization  that  men  must  "  be  born  again  " — not 
hereafter,  but  in  these  passing  days. 

Let  us  come  now  to  a  comparison  of  the  means  for  creating,  or  producing  this 
new  heart. 

There  are  sects  that  expect  a  new  heart  to  come  from  the  common  means  of 
civilization.  A  new  heart  as  to  sin,  is  just  like  a  new  taste  as  to  learning,  or 
music — a  simple  result  of  culture.  They  call  in  no  special  agents,  no  superhuman 
influence. 

The  truly  orthodox,  to  the  influence  of  all  natural  means,  add  the  special 
influence  of  God's  Spirit,  and  of  a  divine  Christ.  In  the  very  outset  one  might 
conjecture  that  a  religion  claiming  help  from  God,  and  from  a  divine  Savior, 
would  most  powerfully  affect  the  heart.  None  of  the  influences  of  civilization  are 
left  out,  but  in  addition  to  these  the  heart  opens  up  a  communion  with  God;  opens 
up  a  study,  and  soul-communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  tlius  casts  itself  into  the 
presence  of  infinite  purity,  power,  justice,  and  goodness.  What  are  the  ordinary 
forces  of  civilization  compared  with  such  a  fellowship  as  this?  The  element  to  be 
eliminated  from  man  is  sin.  Now  civilization  bears  within  itself  a  great  remnant 
of  sin.  Civilization  is  not  holy.  It  is  not  infinitely  just,  and  pure.  But  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  the  very  opposite  of  sin.  The  soul,  therefore,  coming  to  God,  comes  to 
perfect  purity,  and  sees  its  own  wickedness  as  it  can  never  see  it  in  human  culture. 
Before  this  soul-communion  with  God,  the  influence  of  human  agencies  fades  in 
feebleness. 

It  may  be  that,  here  and  there,  an  individual  might  seek  moral  perfection, 
without  being  influenced  by  the  idea  of  God.  In  sober  years,  here  and  there  a 
soul  might  seek  what  might  be  called  morals,  as  being  a  refined  temperance  of  life. 
I  think  Stuart  Mill  has  said,  he  could  imagine  a  religion  of  humanity,  where  man 
would  seek  uprightness  from  a  love  of  himself,  and  of  society's  peace;  but  these 
possible  theories,  count  nought  in  presence  of  the  sweeping  fact,  that  all  morals 
have  revolved  around  the  idea  of  God.  God  renders  virtue  necessary,  and  beauti- 
ful, and  is  to  be  its  reward.  As  the  eyes  of  servants  look  unto  the  hand  of  their 
masters,  as  the  eyes  of  the  maiden  unto  the  hand  of  her  mistress,  so  our  eyes,  wait 
upon  the  Lord  our  God,  until  He  have  mercy  upon  us. 

"While  God  is  Creator  of  material  worlds,  yet  the  heart  feels  that  they  are  but 
decorations  of  His  temple,  and  that  the  rational  soul  is  the  chief  end  of  the  world 


THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  NEED.  31 

in  its  height,  and  depth.  Hence  the  greatest  relation  of  Deity,  is  the  relation  to 
the  soul.  Hence  God  must  be  the  God  of  morals  more  extremely  than  the  God  of 
matter.  If,  as  Hamilton  says,  "there  is  nothing  great  on  earth  but  man,  and 
nothing  great  in  man  except  his  soul,"  so  we  suspect,  that  there  is  nought  so  great 
in  the  sky  as  God,  and  no  attribute  in  that  blessed  One  so  vast,  as  His  moral 
beauty.  When,  therefore,  the  heart  thinks  of  its  sin,  it  must  at  once,  in  fear,  or  in 
hope,  feci  the  weight,  sweet,  or  sorrowful,  of  that  sinless  One,  all  around  like  the 
air,  or  sunshine. 

In  seeking  a  new  moral  nature,  the  soul  must  fly  to  this  vast  bosom,  and  seek 
its  new  life  there — 

"Go  when  the  morning  shineth. 

Go  when  the  noon  is  bright, 
Go  when  the  eve  declineth. 

Go  in  the  hush  of  night." 

Hence,  when  we  seek  the  conversion  of  the  human  race,  give  me  that  religion 
which  leads  the  wicked  heart  up  to  a  communion  direct  with  God,  and  with  Jesus 
Christ.  Where  God  is,  there  is  no  sin ;  and  the  heart  that  believes  most  in  God, 
and  looks  most  to  Him  for  help,  will  become  separated  most  widely  from  the  love, 
and  pursuit  of  vice. 

It  is  an  attribute  of  human  nature,  that  it  is  educated  by  objects  outside  of 
self.  Before  each  scholar,  there  stand  some  great  scholars  of  the  past  alluring,  and 
detaining,  and  transforming  the  mind  of  to-day.  "We  are  all  lesser  lights,  revolv- 
ing around  some  central  sun  of  immense  light,  and  heat.  Without  this  influence 
we  make  no  progress. 

In  religion  it  is  not  otherwise,  and  hence,  most  useful  must  be  that  form  that 
makes  of  Christ  a  divine  Being,  and  invites  the  heart  to  move  about  such  a  centre 
of  power,  holiness,  and  love.  Its  theory  would  seem  at  the  outset  to  promise  most 
for  society.  The  moment  you  declare  Christ  only  a  human  being,  you  have 
weakened  His  influence  upon  the  soul.  The  light,  and  warmth  are  eclipsed,  and 
the  poor  soul  gropes  about,  and  tries  to  find  in  civilization  a  power  denied  it  in 
the  realm  of  the  divine,  and  infinite.  To  part  with  ignorance,  let  us  go  to  the 
learned  ;  to  part  with  sin,  let  us  go  to  the  presence  of  the  holy. 

As  the  planets  get  further  from  the  sun,  their  light  and  heat  diminish.  Their 
flowers,  and  fruits  lose  sweetness;  their  summers  shorten.  What  must  it  be  in 
the  most  remote  Neptune — three  hundred  times  as  far  away  as  our  earth  1  Oh, 
star  of  perpetual  ice,  and  winter  ;  without  bird,  or  flower,  or  leafl  But  to  chill 
the  central  sun  would  give  the  same  result.  Now  in  the  soul's  universe,  there  is  a 
scene  as  dreary.  Christ  is  declared  to  be  only  man — only  falliable  man.  And 
thus  the  human  race  is  crowded  back,  far  awuy  from  the  old  centre  of  Divine 
warmth,  and  light ;  and  many  is  the  soul  which  this  theory  has  left  without  a 
flower,  or  leaf,  or  trace  of  summer  time. 

Mr.  Hepworth  excites  hope  only  in  this,  that  he  has  kindled  a  little  better 
central  sun  for  his  heart — has  declared  Christ  to  be  Divine,  above  other  measure 
of  divinity  believed  in  by  many  of  his  sect.  He  redoubles  the  radiance,  and  the 
warmth  of  that  character  that  has  always  shone  in  rejuvenating,  converting  power 
upon  the  heart.  Men  looking  upon  civilization,  or  culture  only,  may  not  be 
reborn  in  spirit;  but  looking  upon  a  divine  Christ  in  love,  their  souls  are  affected 
by  the  holiness,  and  immortal  life  in  the  great  vision. 

Instead  of  man's  revolving  around  humanity,  Mr.  Hepworth  invites  him  to 
revolve  about  the  Divine.     It  is  a  step  upward,  but  not  an  espousal  of  orthodoxy, 


32  THE  WORLD'S  GREAT  NEED. 

not  even  a  departure  from  the  old  Unitarian  Creed.  To  preach  fully  his  gently 
orthodox  ideas  it  seemed  not  necessary  to  withdraw  from  associations  long  and 
sacred;  ahle  in  themselves  to  clothe  his  words  with  power — for  the  creed  of  his 
denomination  embraces  his  ideas  in  its  grandest  books,  and  many  are  the  hearts  in 
his  Society  that  are  willing  that  the  soul  of  Channing  should  come  back  to  the 
half-desolat«  home.  I  feel  that  there  are  thousands  in  the  Unitarian  body  who 
are  willing,  even  anxious,  to  have  a  common,  fallible  man  plucked  from  the  centre 
of  their  system,  and  to  see  replaced  there  a  divine  Savior,  drawing  all  hearts  by 
His  love,  and  heavenly  attributes. 

The  world  will,  sooner  or  later,  be  compelled  to  go  to  the  Divine  presence 
— not  to  human  presence — for  its  new  heart.  Mankind  has  not  holiness  enough 
to  entice  any  hearts  from  its  sins — has  not  love  enough  to  persuade,  nor  power 
enough  to  alarm.  It  is  the  conception  of  an  ever-present  God  ;  it  is  the  sublime 
divinity  of  Jesus ;  it  is  communion  with  these  characters  ;  it  is  a  belief  in  the 
infinite  love,  and  power,  and  justice,  and  in  the  all-pervading  presence  of  Deity, 
that  can  give  to  this  world  noble,  converted  hearts,  and  can  bear  earth  along 
toward  the  new  birth — the  new  genius  of  human  life. 


THE  VALUE  OF  YESTERDAY. 


For  ask  now  of  the  days  that  are  past.    Deuteronomy,  iv:  33, 

Time  is  one  of  the  incomprehensible  things.  If  we  gaze  up  into  the  blue  sky, 
and  thus  shut  out  all  lowly  objects,  and  then  repeat  the  word  time  to  our  soul,  we 
will  find  ourselves  absorbed  in  a  deep  mystery.  Each  breath  we  take  lies  partly 
in  the  past,  partly  in  the  present,  partly  in  the  future.  One  of  the  most  beautiful 
sentences  uttered  over  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  is  that  one  of  Paul — "Christ,  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever. 

Time  divides  itself  into  these  three  continents  —  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
to-morrow,  each  grand,  and  each  peculiar — and  each  measureless.  The  divinity 
that  presides  over  to-morrow  is  called  Hope ;  the  present  has  no  guardian  by 
name,  and  the  divinity  of  yesterday  is  called  Memory.  There  is  no  eloquence* 
no  poetry,  no  process  of  reasoning  that  can  do  justice  to  the  beauty  and  influence 
of  any  one  of  these  periods.  Looking  backward  and  forward  the  heart  becomes 
overwhelmed  with  the  weight  and  mystery  of  the  theme. 

The  study  of  the  distances  in  the  heavens  in  which  we  find  that  there  are  suns 
whose  light  could  not  have  reached  our  world  in  less  than  a  million  years,  is 
scarcely  less  bewildering  than  this  contemplation  of  the  yesterday  and  the 
to-morrow.  Led  by  its  own  impulse  the  human  heart  has  always  prized  the 
morrow  more  than  the  present,  or  the  yesterday,  and  hence  has  written  the  most 
of  its  poetry  in  the  name  of  Hope.  Hope  has  always  been  the  popular  goddess  of 
earth's  children.  When  all  other  shrines  are  vacant,  this  one  receives  its  daily 
oflFerings  of  flowers.  When  the  seven  classic  philosophers  were  holding  a  banquet 
together,  it  was  asked  of  them,  "What  is  the  most  universal  possession?"  The 
reply  agreed  upon  as  most  accurate  was  the  word  hope,  for  he  that  has  nothing 
else  has  hope. 

But  this  extreme  popularity  and  worship  of  futurity  constitute  a  reason  why 
the  mind  should  guard  against  a  total  oblivion  of  all  else  and  form  an  excuse  for 
reading  before  you  this  morning  the  words  of  the  text,  "Ask  now  the  days  that 
are  past."  For  the  hour  let  us  oppose  the  orators  and  the  poets  and  the  youth  and 
beauty  of  the  realm,  and  speak  in  behalf  of  yesterday.  We  shall  not  find  the  same 
loveliness  of  person  that  belongs  to  Hope,  but  what  is  wanting  in  bloom  and  smile 
may  find  compensation  in  wisdom  and  pensiveness. 

The  days  that  are  past  are  like  a  mother  whose  youth  and  powers  of  mind  and 
affections  have  all  failed  in  the  life-long  devotion  to  her  children.  The  marks  in 
her  forehead,  the  whiteness  of  her  face,  the  solemnity  of  her  heart  are  only  proofs 
that  her  bloom  and  vivacity  have  journeyed  over  to  her  loved  ones,  and  their  life, 
their  love,  their  works,  their  language,  their  song  are  a  direct  inheritance  from 
the  one  who  is  soon  to  be  recalled  from  their  sight.  Thus  yesterday,  going  back 
to  the  tomb  of  Solomon  or  Moses,  or  in  that  longer  journey  proposed  by  recent 
sciences  is,  whether  we  go  back  a  thousand  or  a  million  years,  the  mother  of  us  all, 


34  THE  VALUE  OF  YESTERDAY. 

and  the  tomb,  and  ruins  of  all  the  nations  are  only  marks  upon  the  forehead  of  this 
great  parent ;  they  are  the  whiteness  of  that  face  which  faded  in  behalf  of  new  life 
and  new  happiness.  The  lonely  silent  pyramids,  the  brilliant  ruins  of  the  Acro- 
polis, of  Palmyra,  of  Thebes,  the  deeply  entombed  streets  of  old  Jerusalem,  all  the 
ivy-covered  minsters  of  Europe,  Catholic  or  Protestant,  are  fragments  of  that  home 
where  Yesterday  lived  and  taught  the  new  generations  playing  about  her  feet. 

The  greatness  of  man  as  pictured  in  the  future  may  be  a  dream  so  far  as  our 
life,  or  our  nation's  life  is  concerned,  but  the  past  is  a  great  fact  of  which  nothing 
can  rob  us,  and  whose  worth  no  fancy  can  over-estimate.  In  order  to  behold  the 
presence  and  kindness  of  God,  it  is  not  necessary  to  draw  upon  the  powers  of  hope 
any  more  than  upon  the  powers  of  memory.  It  is  a  confessed  truth  that  by  nature 
we  look  for  the  most  and  highest  good  in  the  future,  and,  since  God  is  the  ideal  of 
goodness,  the  soul  beholds  Him  unveiling  himself  in  days  that  are  to  come.  We 
say,  "Our  father  in  Heaven,"  more  in  anticipation  of  what  He  will  be  than  in 
confession  of  what  He  has  been  ;  for  the  sin  and  suifering  of  earth  make  it  logically 
necessary  for  us  to  select  the  future  as  the  arena  of  the  Creator.  But,  having 
confessed  this  logical  superiority  of  the  future,  the  past  yet  remains  a  vast  field 
of  religious  truth  and  sentiment. 

Let  it  be  granted  that  there  is  a  personal  God  whom  we  define  as  the  sum  of 
all  perfections,  yet  we  could  not  prove  that  it  was  necessary  that  this  God  should 
have  expressed  all  His  attributes  in  the  very  first  years  of  human  life.  If  it  was 
lawful  for  the  human  race  to  begin  in  a  childhood  that  could  neither  speak  nor 
walk,  and  if  it  was  lawful  for  all  science  and  art  to  begin  with  simple  lessons  and 
slowly  work  forward,  it  would  seem  equally  lawful  that  the  Creator  should  not 
unfold  all  His  glory  to  the  first  generation,  but  should  strew  it  along  for  a  ten 
thousand  or  million  years  period.  All  the  beauties  of  earth  are  progressive  beau- 
ties, all  the  arts  are  progressive  arts,  all  the  sciences  are  progressive  sciences — and 
hence  one  might  expect  that  the  infinite  love  of  God  would  be  subject  to  a  slow 
manifestation  of  itself.  A  priori  reason  would  suppose,  perhaps,  that  a  God  of 
love  would  be  found  proceeding  as  such  from  the  outset  in  the  history  of  a  creature 
like  man,  and  that  man  would  never  know  a  year  or  a  moment  of  sin  or  pain,  that 
barbarism  and  depravity  would  be  impossible  for  a  day  or  an  hour.  But  being 
driven  by  the  facts  away  from  the  use  of  a  priori  logic  we  must  fall  back  to  the 
second  best  logic,  and,  following  the  phenomena  of  science  and  art  and  all  human 
activity,  must  suppose  that  God  selects  not  a  day  or  a  year  for  His  own  full 
emblazonment,  but  a  vast  epoch  such  as  is  demanded  by  geology  or  the  study  of 
the  stars.  With  this  confession  in  our  minds  we  can  "ask  now  the  days  that  are 
past,"  and  see  in  man's  face  and  language  and  laws  and  arts  the  gradual  unfolding 
of  divine  wisdom  and  love. 

A  child  taken  from  our  public  schools  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  and  examined 
in  reading,  in  conversation,  in  knowledge,  in  music,  will  be  found  to  possess  a 
language  that  consumed  six  thousand  years  in  its  construction  ;  it  will  be  found  to 
possess  knowledge  that  has  been  wrought  out  by  the  toil  and  perhaps  sorrow  of  a 
hundred  generations.  It  will  sing  perhaps  a  song,  "My  Country  'tis  of  Thee,"  or 
"Home  Sweet  Home,"  that  is  the  upshot  of  thousands  of  years  of  sentiment  and 
thought  about  liberty  and  home.  What  then  is  a  bright  pure  school  child  to-day, 
but  a  place  where  God's  love  and  wisdom  in  days  that  are  past  have  treasured 
up  their  tenderness  as  the  earth  treasures  up  the  dust  that  for  millions  of  years 
has  filtered  down  upon  it  out  of  the  invisible  either  in  which  the  worlds  all  float? 

But  pass  from  '.the  school  child  to  all  the  school  children,  and  to  all  the  adult 
minds  and  hearts  that  move  upon  the  earth,  listen  to  all  their  wisdom  and  music 


THE  VALUE  OF  YESTERDAY.  86 

and  industry  and  eloquence,  and  do  you  not  feel  that  this  multitude  measures  a 
great  revelation  of  God  above  that  day  when  earth  possessed  but  one  man  or  family, 
and  that  one  without  language  and  without  learning  and  without  virtue  ? 

There  are  two  theories  about  the  origin  of  man.  The  one  that  he  was  made 
in  his  present  form  by  the  Creator  by  a  simple  instantaneous  command,  the  other 
that  man  is  the  result  of  a  long  development  and  mutation  of  species.  Thus  the 
only  dreamed  of  theories  give  us  only  one  human  being  in  the  outset,  and  that  one 
a  human  being  defective  in  language,  in  art,  in  learning,  in  hope,  in  memory. 
Defective  in  language  because  there  was  nothing  to  be  said  ;  in  art  for  there  was 
no  one  to  admire  the  skill ;  in  learning  because  there  was  no  language  in  which 
to  express  facts ;  in  hope  because  there  was  no  realization  of  any  imperfection  or 
death  ;  in  memory  because  there  was  nothing  to  be  remembered. 

In  the  first  human  being  therefore,  God  could  no  more  display  His  perfections 
than  a  musician  like  Mozart  could  unfold  his  genius  to  an  infant,  or  to  a  South 
Sea  Islander.  Could  the  divine  virtue  be  perceived  by  a  being  that  had  not 
perceived  sin?  Could  the  divine  immortality  be  appreciated  by  an  individual 
who  was  a  stranger  to  death  ?  Could  the  divine  omniscience  be  felt  by  a  being 
that  had  not  yet  learned  or  developed  the  love  of  knowledge  ?  By  no  means 
Could  the  sun  reveal  its  power  and  beauty  if  it  had  nothing  but  a  clod  to  shine 
upon?  Givo  it  a  planitary  system,  skies,  stars,  clouds,  continents,  seas,  fruits, 
flowers,  and  it  possesses  then  an  arena  for  its  play  of  color  and  light. 

In  order  that  God  should  reveal  himself,  a  race  was  necessary,  not  only  moving 
in  vast  multitudes,  but  moving  along  vast  periods  of  time ;  and  hence,  recalling 
the  days  that  are  past,  the  heart  in  the  least  religious  may  perceive  a  Creator 
scattering  the  attributes  and  truths  of  His  own  being. 

You  tell  me  God  is  sinless.  Looking  into  the  future  we  perceive  only  a  dream, 
and  turn  away  uncertain,  but,  looking  into  that  vast  realm  called  Yesterday,  and 
perceiving  that  sin  has  always  brought  sorrow,  and  that  virtue  has  brought  beauty 
of  face,  and  life  and  peace  of  heart,  I  come  back  from  that  survey  feeling  that 
righteousness  is  a  divine  attribute.  The  sins  of  men  are  so  inwoven  with  the  sorrows 
of  men  that  this  very  tumult  and  perpetual  weeping  are  only  an  announcement  of 
the  benediction,  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  But  it  is 
impossible  to  descend  to  particulars.  We  can  only  say  that  the  immense  past  of 
humanity  may  be  vieWed  as  a  field  in  which  the  arts  and  the  industries  and  the 
philosophies  and  religion,  taking  the  form  at  last  of  Christianity,  have  gradually 
found  opportunity  for  the  revelation  of  their  glorious  natures. 

But,  turning  aside  from  thouglits  about  God's  own  emblazonry,  think  of  man 
himself  and  his  immediate  personal  relation  to  the  days  that  are  passed.  As  we 
said  in  the  outset,  great  is  the  office  of  hope.  We  have  no  word  too  good  or 
extreme  for  that  faculty,  but  we  would  enter  a  plea  in  behalf  of  the  value  of  yester- 
day in  its  relations  to  mind  and  heart.  Hope  is  a  grand  sentiment,  but  it  conveys 
no  information.  All  the  information  of  the  soul  comes  up  from  the  days  that 
are  gone.  Hence  one  of  the  best  thinkers  said,  "Not  to  know  history  is  to  be 
always  a  child."  The  value  of  the  ideas  that  enter  into  human  lift  is  chiefly  to  be 
learned  by  watching  their  evolution  and  workings  in  that  great  workshop  called 
Yesterday.  Take  the  idea  of  liberty,  and  no  dreamer  who  looks  into  the  future 
can  behold  its  length  and  breadth,  but  he  alone  can  measure  the  import  of  the 
term  who  hears  the  cry  of  the  slave  from  the  days  of  the  Komans  down  to  the 
career  of  our  own  land,  and  who  sees  the  prosperity  of  freedom  from  Athens  to 
Florence,  and  from  Florence  to  England  and  America.  Take  the  idea  of  home, 
and  if  you  would  feel  the  import  of  the  word,  look  not  forward  into  poetic  haze, 


86  THE  VALUE  OF  YESTERDAY. 

but  back  into  human  experience,  in  the  tears  of  sadness  and  joy  that  have  fallen 
by  the  feet  of  any  exile  going  away  or  coming  back  ;  or  look  into  your  own  child- 
hood and  consult  its  memories  and  then  the  term  unveils  itself  with  no  light  or 
shadow  left  out. 

Beyond  the  unfolding  of  truths  Yesterday  possesses  another  power — that  of 
softening  and  modulating  the  mind  and  heart.  Egotism  draws  its  vanity  from  a 
perfect  forgetfulness  of  yesterday.  Self-consciousness  and  coming  greatness  erase 
all  else  from  the  mind,  and  the  egotist  stands  great  in  his  possibilities.  He  is  just 
about  to  conquer  a  world  or  greatly  surprise  one.  Any  deep  study  of  his  own  or 
of  the  world's  yesterday  would  drain  his  heart  of  the  last  drop  of  personal  vanity, 
for  there  was  an  arena  and  he  did  not  conquer  nor  astonish  a  world — and  there  all 
those  who  were  more  highly  endowed  are  sleeping  in  forgotten  dust.  If  the  past 
utters  anything  that  is  of  value  it  is  that  all  self-worship  and  glorification  are  the 
weakest  shape  human  nature  can  assume,  and  that  there  is  nothing  worth  living 
for  except  the  general  mental  and  moral  progress  of  self  and  of  mankind.  The 
great  graves  are  those  which  cover  the  dust  of  hearts  that  did  some  work  that 
entered  after  them  into  the  public  welfare  and  happiness. 

There  is  no  vanity  away  from  man.  The  sea  gives  us  her  music  without 
egotism.  The  rainbow  spreads  out  her  gorgeous  lines  without  boasting.  The 
nightingale  sings  her  notes  herself  unseen  among  the  wild  thorn,  in  the  silent 
night.  The  floral  world  in  June  fills  the  air  with  perfume,  and  the  sight  with  her 
indescribable  tints,  but  without  any  ostentation.  Man  alone  has  vanity ;  not 
because  man  alone  has  soul,  for  this  would  be  to  degrade  soul  below  the  standard 
of  dumb  life  ;  but  because  man  alone  has  wandered  from  the  divine  path.  This 
wandering  has  been  aided  and  abetted  by  his  blindness  to  yesterday,  and  by  living 
only  in  the  proud  thrones  and  crowns  and  glories  of  to-morrow.  Vanity  draws 
its  chief  nutriro.ent  from  the  future.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  reason  why  nearly  all 
of  us  pass  through  a  vain  period  in  early  years.  Fortunate  is  the  heart  that  did 
not,  in  early  life,  pass  through  a  score  of  years  of  personal  greatness.  The  animal 
spirits  and  poetry  of  youth  make  it  despise  the  past,  and  dwell  only  in  the  land  of 
hope,  and  as  the  future  contains  nothing  that  can  humiliate,  contains  no  tombs,  no 
disappointment,  no  dust  of  the  heart,  it  carries  the  young  soul  away  from  truth 
and  decorates  it  in  its  own  regal  and  gaudy  drapery.  But  when  the  past  begins 
to  be  recognized  by  the  mind,  when  the  soul  looks  back  at  its  own  path  and  the 
great  path  of  mankind,  a  spirit  rises  from  that  wide,  silent  ocean  that  drives  away 
all  self-worship  and  makes  man  stand  up  in  a  combined  strength  and  humility — 
the  only  combination  worthy  of  man  or  his  Maker. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  a  beautiful  providence  that  young  persons  look  only  into 
the  future,  for  there  certainly  should  be  some  years  of  life  set  apart  for  a  happiness 
without  much  alloy — and  such  a  joy  does  come  from  a  steady  gaze  toward  that 
realm  whose  gates  are  not  only  always  garlanded  ;  but  are  always  open.  But  if 
this  be  so,  then  I  know  there  is  another  providence  also  that  makes  man  as  he 
draws  near  the  noontime  of  life,  labor  and  usefulness,  begin  to  look  back  and  find 
in  the  history  of  man  a  sober  truth  and  a  self-forgetfulness  and  love  of  mankind 
which  the  rosy  future  could  not  give.  Hence  despise  not  the  years  when  you  find 
your  reflection  begins  to  look  back,  for  God  has  not  without  reason  placed  behind 
the  human  race  a  long  five  or  ten  thousand  years,  and  it  is  not  without  reason 
that  this  past  is  constantly  becoming  more  immense  and  more  varied.  It  is  the 
soil  out  of  which  man  grows  and  is  to  grow,  and  the  longer  the  rains  wash  down 
the  mountain  sides,  and  the  more  of  yesterday's  leaves  and  grasses  mingle  with  the 
mold,  the  greater  will  be  the  productions  of  to-morrow. 


THE  VALVE  OF  YESTERDAY.  87 

Yesterday  contains  all  the  battlefields  in  which  freedom  was  gradually 
wrought  out  from  many  threads  all  dipped  in  blood.  Yesterday  contains  the 
experiment  and  the  failure  of  all  despotisms.  Yesterday  contains  the  onset  and 
defeat  of  every  form  of  sin  and  vice.  Yesterday  holds  the  ashes  of  all  beauty,  and 
of  all  life  except  that  of  the  soul  with  God.  Yesterday  is  full  of  past  usefulness 
and  of  its  ways  and  means,  full  of  tears  and  their  causes  and  cures.  In  that 
shadowy  domain  there  stands  the  cross,  and  there  is  the  Saviour  dying  for  the  vast 
myriads  of  a  race.  God  has  not  without  reason  thrown  such  an  immense  history 
Lehind  His  children  of  to-day.  It  must  be  that  out  of  the  world  that  has  been 
there  is  always  flowing  down  to  those  who  are  living  a  stream  of  wisdom  and 
character  that  bears  onward  to  a  sacred  destiny. 

The  past  is  the  long,  uniform  trade-wind  that  bears  the  spirit  along  toward 
its  far  off  haven.  The  ship  striking  those  winds  has  around  it  a  friend  that  shall 
for  days  and  nights  and  for  weeks,  without  calm  or  storm,  bear  it  along  over  the 
wide  sea.  The  human  spirit,  if  it  will  guide  its  course  properly,  may  pass  into 
such  a  moving  air,  that,  without  storm  or  calm,  will  day  and  night  throw  it  along 
toward  a  better,  nobler  home. 

The  poet  Dryden  bequeathed  us  a  poem  upon  this  great  dream  of  to-morrow : 

Trust  on  and  think  the  morrow  will  repay. 
The  morrow's  falser  than  the  former  day ; 
Lies  worse,  and  while  it  says  you  shall  be  blest. 
Steals  all  the  pleasure  that  you  once  possessed. 

Aware  of  the  value  and  beauty  of  hope,  and  not  daring  to  depreciate  it  in  the 
least,  yet  I  do  wish  you  ail  to  feel  that  there  are  two  other  powerful  influences  in 
human  life,  in  each  individual  life,  to-day  and  yesterday.  A  bad  yesterday 
is  the  saddest  condition  of  the  soul.  If  one  can  only  look  back  on  a  good  yester- 
day, the  future  need  not  be  feared  ;  but  if  yesterday  was  marked  by  a  great  crime 
or  folly,  I  do  not  see  how  there  could  be  an  eternity  long  enough  or  purifying 
enough  to  wash  it  white.  There  may  be  some  river  Lethe  known  only  to  God 
and  created  by  His  mercy,  dipped  into  which  the  soul  may  forget  its  vice  and 
crime,  but  reason  looking  upon  the  Catherines  de  Medici,  or  upon  the  violet  mur- 
derers of  our  own  land,  cannot  see  anything  in  the  countless  ye:irs  of  eternity  that 
could  erase  the  vision  of  memory  of  the  black  spot.  "  Things  past,"  Livy  says, 
"  may  be  repented  of,  but  never  erased."  Yesterday  is  nothing  but  to-day  passed 
over  by  our  mind  and  heart.  The  great  duty  of  the  hour  is,  not  to  gaze  with 
poetic  rapture  into  the  future,  but  to  weave  out  of  the  present  a  glorious  past. 

One  of  our  poets  says  :  "To-morrow  do  thy  worst  for  I  have  lived  to-day." 
And  the  old  Martial  says :  "  Didst  thou  say  thou  wilt  live  to-morrow?  He  is  the 
Wiseman  who  lived  yesterday."  To-day  is  the  sublime  part  of  life  because  it  is 
continually  making  that  yestei-day  which  will  always  follow  us  go  where  we  may 
in  this  life  or  one  to  come.  Aristotle  says  there  is  one  thing  which  God  cannot 
change  and  that  is  yesterday.  If  this  is  so  and  we  all  feel  that  it  is,  then  there  is 
one  thing  better  than  all  high  resolve — namely  noble  deeds  already  done.  Better 
therefore  than  hope  of  great  things  to  come  is  the  memory  of  good  already  per- 
formed,   Shakspearo  says : 

"  fo-morrow  and  to-morrow  and  to-morrow. 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day 
To  that  last  syllable  of  recorded  time; 
And  all  our  yesterdays  have  only  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death." 


38  THE  VALUE  OF  YESTERDAY. 

Oh  my  friends  before  whose  feet  the  stream  of  life  is  running  sweetly  to-day, 
and  above  all  oh  ye  young  hearts  who  have  as  yet  no  yesterday,  but  in  whose  hands 
its  destiny  is  lying  all  untouched  and  ready  to  be  formed  for  joy  or  grief — do  not 
despise  to-day,  and  fill  your  eyes  with  only  the  vision  of  glittering  hope ;  do  not 
sit  upon  the  banks  of  this  stream  waiting  for  its  waters  to  run  by  and  bring  you 
the  beautiful  future,  but  pour  out  your  heart's  powers  and  life  upon  the  present, 
because  it  is  creating  a  Yesterday  whose  smile,  if  it  wears  one,  will  never  perish, 
and  whose  tears  of  sin,  if  it  has  them,  not  even  a  merciful  God  can  wipe  away. 

The  chief  part  of  your  life  is  not  that  which  spreads  out  before  you,  but  it  will 
soon  be  that  which  shall  lie  back  of  you.  The  impulse  of  a  river  is  not  in  the 
broad  expanse  where  it  emerges  into  the  sea,  but  is  far  back  of  that  in  the  table 
lands  and  mountain  ranges  of  a  vast  continent,  all  which,  having  caught  the  rains 
and  having  dissolved  the  snows  of  yesterday  crowd  the  stream  foward  in  a  majes- 
tic sweep.  The  wide  mouth  of  the  Amazon  is  the  result  of  the  storms  and  snows 
of  a  thousand  winters.  Thus  life  should  not  goon  allured  only  by  poetic  hope, 
but  pressed  forward  by  the  momentum  and  majestic  flow  of  days  that  are  gone. 
Heaven  is  a  height  to  which  men  climb  on  the  deeds  of  his  life.  Hence  the  Bible 
speaking  of  the  dead  coming  to  heaven,  says:  "Their  works  do  follow  them." 
Oh  yes,  these  works  make  the  soul ;  they  weave  its  life  out  of  their  golden  threads ; 
they  fill  it  with  wisdom  and  love  and  humility,  and  then  throw  it  forward  to 
heaven  as  the  south  wind  carries  northward  in  spring  the  song  of  birds  and  the 
garlands  of  flowers,  Hope  is  herself  founded  upon  the  past.  It  is  a  glorious  past 
only  that  produces  a  serene,  glorious  hope.  Yesterday  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Heavenly  City.  Hope  is  the  sweet  blue  sky  in  which  the  structure  rises.  Oh 
friends,  combine  both  hope  and  memory.  Coming  to  the  grave  he  only  can  look 
forward  with  joy  who  can  sweetly  look  back. 


SOUL-CULTURE. 


For  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul? — Muii.  xvi.  26, 
And  the  Child  grew  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit. — Luke  ii.  40. 

The  words  soul  and  spirit  are  sprinkled  over  the  pages  of  the  Bible  as  thickly 
as  leaves  upon  the  ground  in  autumn.  There  is  no  evident  difference  in  the  signifi- 
cation of  the  two  words.  A  book  has  been  published  within  the  past  two  years, 
vrhose  object  is  to  teach  that  man  is  composed  of  three  elements — mind,  soul,  and 
spirit ;  but  most  readers  rise  from  the  book  entertained  to  some  extent,  but  to  a 
greater  extent  untaught  and  bewildered. 

Beyond  the  grand  divisions,  mind  and  soul,  it  is  difficult  to  pass.  And  these 
1W0  continents  are  not  marked  out  by  definite  coast  lines  and  separated  by  great 
neutral  oceans,  but  rather  lie  contiguous,  like  the  two  tints  of  a  flower,  with  a 
beautiful  middle  ground,  where  the  spectator  loses  power  to  announce  which  color 
is  more  vivid. 

But  for  our  purpose  we  do  not  need  a  definite  mapping  out  of  mind  and  soul, 
intellect  and  spirit,  knowledge  and  character  ;  we  need  only  the  general  truth, 
that  man  possesses  a  certain  soul-life,  that  can  grow  and  can  rise  and  fall  like  the 
waves  of  the  deep. 

It  is  wonderful  how  much  the  Bible  uses  this  word  spirit.  If  you  will  open 
your  Concordance  and  see  what  an  array  of  texts  there  are  in  which  this  word  is 
master  of  the  proposition,  you  will  ever  after  think  more  highly  of  the  soul  within 
your  own  bosom.  You  will  there  see  set  in  order  the  "spirit"  of  wisdom,  the 
"spirit"  of  love,  the  "spirit"  of  charity,  of  peace,  the  "spirit"  of  God,  the  broken 
"spirit,"  the  faithful  "spirit,"  and,  according  to  Peter,  the  glorious  "spirit." 
Eeading  over  this  grand  catalogue,  made  up  out  of  all  the  deepest  thought  of  Job 
and  St.  John,  you  cannot  but  feel  thankful  that  the  Creator  has  poured  into  your 
bosom  a  portion  of  that  soul  without  which  the  whole  world  would  profit  nothing. 

I  have  read  these  texts,  not  for  the  purpose  of  leading  you  again  over  the 
estimate  of  that  deliverance  of  spirit  announced  by  Christ,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
uttering  some  tlioughts  that  ought  to  be  held  as  preliminary  to  all  consideration 
of  that  blessed  redemption  revealed  in  the  New  Testament.  If  there  is  offered 
the  world  a  Saviour  of  the  soul,  the  world  may  well  inquire  what  the  soul  is,  and 
whether  it  is  desirable  that  it  struggle  much,  or  long,  for  a  friendship  with  that 
great  Soul  of  Nazareth.  Our  inquiry  is  not  a  direct  application  of  the  text,  but  a 
preliminary  reflection. 

If  one  might  dare  find  a  defect  in  the  method  of  preaching  the  gospel,  it 
would  seem  safe  to  declare  that  the  method  is  one  of  endless  assumption  of  pre- 
liminary thoughts,  and  endless  repetition  of  final  truths  and  conventional  terms. 
In  place  of  any  discussion  of  the  nature  of  sin,  we  are  warned  simply  as  sinners, 
and  the  punishment  is  daily  re-announced.    The  nature  of  faith  is  passed  by  in  our 


40  SOUL-CULTURE. 

zeal  to  urge  men  to  believe ;  the  philosophy  and  analysis  of  repentance  are  crowded 
out  of  the  world  by  the  perennial  command  to  repent ;  and  instead  of  defining  or 
measuring  the  inspiration  of  the  sacred  Book,  it  is  enough  if  we  say  daily  that  all 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration. 

Whether  this  avoidance  of  preliminary  questions  is  to  be  attributed  to  a  want 
of  courage,  or  want  of  industry,  or  to  a  long  prevalence  of  dogmatism  which  is 
too  vain  to  admit  the  importance  of  an  inquiry,  we  cannot  venture  to  affirm,  but 
must  content  ourself  with  the  conviction  that  there  is  need  of  reform  in  the  topics 
and  mode  of  the  sacred  desk.  When,  however,  we  all  remember  with  what  labor, 
and  with  disappointment  often,  men  have  sought  the  foundation  truths  of  life,  we 
cannot  but  palliate  the  sin  that  gives  up  this  path  of  pursuit,  and  accepts  of  a  final 
word  and  no  questions  asked. 

All  thoughts  about  the  soul  must  indeed  lead  us  to  a  wall  at  last,  whici  we 
cannot  undermine  or  scale ;  but  such  is  the  common  destiny  of  truth-seekers  that 
our  tears  of  sorrow  will  fall  no  sooner  here,  and  no  bitterer,  than  along  any  path 
our  foot  may  choose.  It  is  said  that  Aristotle  grieved  all  his  life  that  he  could  not 
explain  the  tides  of  the  sea  that  washed  the  shores  of  his  country.  The  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  like  the  pursuit  of  any  pleasure,  is  a  chase  of  both  joy  and  grief.  All 
the  nets  that  drag  through  the  sea  of  life  draw  out  the  good  and  bad  at  last  to  the 
shore.  All  the  seventy  years  are  a  constant  efibrt  to  sift  the  varied  sorrow  out  of 
those  seventy  years  ;  and  when  at  last  we  fall,  the  winnowing  fan  will  be  found  in 
the  right  hand,  trying  still  to  separate  grain  and  chafl".  But,  unreadable  as  all 
things  are  in  the  world,  there  are  always  approximations  to  truth  possible  on  all 
hands,  and  with  these  our  hearts  must  learn  to  be  content. 

In  this  matter  of  intellect  and  soul,  it  is  not  otherwise.  Though  there  are 
places  where  colors  blind  and  are  lost,  or  where  light  ends  in  shadow,  yet  there  is 
some  color  and  some  light.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  soul  is  the  conscious 
life  or  being  of  man,  and  that  intellect  is  simply  its  grandest  servant,  its  daily 
purveyor.  A  new  fact  is  valuable  because  it  feeds  this  inner  life.  It  helps  the  soul 
to  some  new  motion  or  deed  of  joy.  Knowledge  is  fuel  for  this  warm  flame.  The 
Psalmist  says  that  while  he  was  musing  the  fire  burned — not  the  fire  upon  the 
hearth — but  the  flame  in  his  bosom.  He  says,  "My  heart  was  hot  within  me,"  and 
while  he  mused  the  fire  burned  the  more  intensely.  That  is,  as  the  facts  passed 
along  in  review  before  his  intellect,  his  soul  within  him  increased  the  flow  and 
power  of  its  life. 

Knowledge  is  said  to  be  power.  It  is  indeed  power,  for  the  soul  converts  it 
into  all  manner  of  action— joy,  charity,  worship,  love,  eloquence.  As  the  rich 
earth  drinks  in  simply  water  and  light  and  heat, "and  then  sends  forth  all  manner 
of  fruit  and  blossoms,  so  the  soul  receives  the  facts  of  the  intellect,  and  makes  them 
the  basis  of  a  vast  creation,  varied  as  that  which  came  from  the  Almighty. 

To  the  poor  negro,  lying  on  the  banks  of  the  Niger,  what  a  narrowness  of 
soul !  What  a  perpetual  stupor  !  But  how  could  his  soul  live  or  move  ?  The  facts 
of  the  world  have  never  fallen  upon  it,  as  dew  upon  drooping  grass.  The  vast 
culture  of  the  world,  the  vast  arts  useful  and  beautiful,  its  immense  history,  run- 
ning back  through  thousands  of  years  and  over  vast  empires,  have  never  passed 
into  his  brain,  and  the  soul,  having  no  purveyor,  starves  within  its  silent  dungeon. 
The  spirit  of  this  poor  savage  is  a  seed  that  has  fallen  upon  a  rock.  There  is 
nothing  to  nourish  its  mysterious  germ.  Tendrils  thrown  out  could  grasp  nothing ; 
hence  there  is  no  unfolding  of  leaf  or  flower. 


SOUL-CULTURE.  41 

Compare  with  this  desolate  soul  a  Burke  that  was  cast  among  the  facts  of  Eng- 
land, or  a  disciple  that  leaned  upon  the  heart  of  the  world's  Lord,  and  saw  truths 
turning  into  soul.  The  facts  of  earth  are  only  the  food  ordained  of  Heaven  for 
the  life  of  the  spirit.  Besides  the  common  five  senses,  there  is  an  innumerable 
army  of  purveyors — history,  science,  art,  religion — whose  only  calling  is  that  of 
adding  to  the  emotions  and  impulses  of  that  mystery  called  soul.  The  truths  of 
this  whole  career  are  only  the  soil  of  that  strange  but  beautiful  growth,  the  spirit. 

Truth,  therefore,  sought  through  simple  desire  to  increase  one's  store  of  acqui- 
sition, truth  pursued  only  to  learn  what  comes  next,  must  be  much  like  the  miser's 
pursuit  of  gold — a  fatal  transformation  of  a  means  into  an  end.  As  money  is 
worthless,  only  so  far  as  the  blessings  of  life  are  bought  with  it,  so  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  must  have  its  value  measured  by  the  outgrowth  of  sentiment. 

The  decoration  and  enlargement  of  the  heart  are  the  direct  end  of  truth,  and, 
without  this  result,  knowledge  is  not  power,  but  is  treasure  buried  and  forgotten 
— like  the  fabled  gold  of  Capt.  Kidd — by  some  unknown  sea.  Florence  Night- 
ingale is  all  the  prison  truth  and  battle-field  truth  of  the  world  turned  into  divine 
soul.  Those  gloomy  facts  were  converted  into  an  infinite  love  by  the  strange 
machinery  of  man. 

A  Christian's  creed,  therefore,  is  only  a  first  step  toward  being  a  Christian  or 
even  a  good  man.  He  has  facts,  just  as  a  successful  speculator  has  money,  but 
whether  the  man  will  be  a  Christian  is  as  uncertain  as  whether  the  gainer  of 
money  will  be  a  noble  man  or  a  despicable  miser.  It  is  the  fire  which  truth 
kindles  in  the  soul  that  determines  the  value  of  all  study  and  experience  and 
reflection.  Hence  the  grand  men  of  the  world  have  never  been  those  who  have 
acquired  most  truths,  but  those  with  whom  the  world's  experience  and  events 
have  hastened  to  put  on  the  garments  of  divine  spirit,  those  with  whom  truth  has 
been  only  a  hand  to  strike  afresh  each  day  the  spirit's  harp.  Hence  it  has  easily 
come  to  pass  that  the  most  useless  and  forlorn  men  who  have  lived  since  the  world 
began  have  been  the  professional  heresy-hunters  in  the  Church.  Living  for  a 
certain  assemblage  of  words  just  as  the  miser  lives  for  his  labeled  bags  of  gold, 
they  have  always  left  their  souls  to  go  dressed  in  vile  rags  and  to  die  of  famine  in 
absolute  sight  of  a  land  of  milk  and  honey.  Not  knowing  "that  an  ounce  of  life 
is  better  than  a  ton  of  knowledge,"  they  are  but  clerks  who  file  the  business 
transactions  of  yesterday  and  await  calmly  the  arrival  of  some  morrow  of  dispute. 
These  having  read  a  page,  or  having  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  a  discourse, 
do  not  open  their  souls  to  admit  any  new  warmth,  but  with  Shylock  begin  to  read 
the  record,  and  to  mutter  that  "  it  is  not  so  stated  in  the  bond."  The  idea  of 
character  never  disturbs  their  brain,  but  man's  prospect  of  heaven  is  learned 
wholly  by  a  comparison  of  antique  bonds.  Instead  of  seeking  the  grandeur  of 
man  in  the  soul's  alembic,  where  truth  is  passing  over  into  the  realm  of  spirit, 
they  locate  salvation  in  their  forty  articles,  and  give  to  prejudice  and  to  memory 
the  heavens  that  God  made  for  the  heart.  These  have  never  been  the  useful  or 
loved  men  of  history.  They  are  the  misers  of  Christianity.  But  when  there  has 
come  along  a  being  with  whom  a  single  fact  in  morals  has  fallen  in  upon  that 
holy  place  called  the  soul,  and  burst  forth  into  some  sweet  sentiment,  there  has 
come  along  a  being  that  was  both  earth's  help  and  earth's  joy. 

In  "Wilberforce,  the  fact  of  negro  bondage  fell  in  upon  his  heart  like  a  flower 
seed  falling  into  the  warm  black  earth  of  Italy  or  Florida.  His  one  truth  produced 
a  tear.    His  tear  increased  into  a  river  of  eloquence.     The  river  widened  into  the 


42  SOUL-CULTURE. 

modern  Sea  of  Liberty.  His  soul  absorbed  that  truth  of  suffering  and  became  all 
colored  with  a  Christ-like  humanity,  as  the  snow  white  wool  drinks  in  the  Tyrian 
dye.  Alongside  this  Wilberforce,  place  a  score  of  professional  heresy-hunters  fresh 
from  their  victim,  and  how  wretched  they  all  appear  in  presence  of  such  an 
uprising  of  a  single  heart  I 

There  is  no  doubt  the  notorious  Catherine  II.  held  more  truth  and  better 
truth  than  was  known  to  all  classic  Greece — held  to  a  belief  in  a  Saviour,  of 
whose  glory  that  gifted  land  knew  nought ;  and  yet,  such  is  the  grandeur  of  soul 
above  mind,  that  I  doubt  not  that  Queen  Penelope  of  the  dark  land,  and  the 
doubting  Socrates,  have  found  at  Heaven's  gate  a  sweeter  welcome  sung  of  angels 
than  greeted  the  ear  of  Kussia's  brilliant,  but  false-lived  queen.  Penelope  knew 
little  about  our  God,  nothing  about  our  Saviour;  but  what  truth  she  knew  was 
transfigured  in  the  white  raiment  of  life — the  garb  of  immortality. 

"Virtue  is  knowledge  applied,"  says  a  thoughtful  writer.  And  Cicero  says  • 
"  Why  should  I  study  unless  to  prepare  myself  for  my  associations  with  my  fellow 
men?"  Beautiful  thought  of  that  unrivaled  man  I  Why  read  the  history  of 
liberty  unless  I  intend  to  grasp  it  with  a  firmer  hand,  and  seek  to  break  the  chains 
of  humanity  ?  Why  study  the  flowers  of  the  field  unless  I  am  to  come  home 
tenderer  to  my  children,  and  a  better  believer  in  God?  Why  read  over  the 
world's  charity  unless  I  am  myself  henceforth  to  be  of  kinder  heart  ? 

Thus  the  Christian  creed  is  valuable  only  so  far  as  the  soul  can  and  does  draw 
it  into  its  crucible  and  transform  it  into  life.  The  variations  between  Methodist 
and  Calvinist  go  for  nought,  because  the  variations  are  over  ideas  that  are  in- 
capable of  being  made  into  the  fibre  of  soul.  They  count  nothing  because  they  do 
not  reach  the  realm  where  God  stretches  at  last  the  line  of  measurement. 

It  is  not  the  Trinity  that  moulds  human  life,  but  the  doctrine  of  God.  It  is 
not  the  eternal  possession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  may  shape  the  human  soul,  but 
the  fact  of  an  ever-present  spirit.  That  Christ  was  eternally  begotten  of  the 
Father  is  a  doctrine  that  cannot  be  appreciated  in  any  way  by  man's  heart,  but 
the  Christ  of  the  New  Testament  can  be  grasped  and  loved  ;  and  hence  the 
responsibility  and  success  and  beauty  of  human  life  will  be  all  related  to  the  latter 
of  these  statements,  and  be  wholly  discharged  from  all  the  former,  without  penalty 
or  costs. 

That  truth  alone  is  valuable  and  filled  with  responsibility,  which  might  make 
our  life  deeper  and  better.  To  slight  this  is  to  lose  that  soul,  than  which  one 
would  better  lose  the  whole  world.  Those  are  the  responsible  facts  which  lie  above 
our  hearts  as  the  pure  snow  on  the  mountains  lies  ready  to  bless  in  summer  time 
the  fields  beneath. 

Intellect  is  said  to  be  cold.  So  it  is  by  itself.  But  complain  not  at  the  snow 
that  reposes  upon  the  Kocky  or  Alpine  range.  Cold  ?  Yes.  But  all  summer 
long,  and  long  is  the  summer  at  their  bases,  the  vineyards  and  fields  and  orchards 
draw  their  clusters,  their  golden  harvests,  from  the  kind  melting  of  these  treasures 
of  the  frost.  Cold,  indeed,  but  all  of  France  and  Italy  are  made  a  paradise 
beneath. 

Truth  in  itself  is  cold,  but  in  the  design  of  the  Creator  its  white  treasures 
falling  as  softly  as  snow,  and  falling  through  many  centuries,  daily  dissolve  and 
transform  the  spirit  beneath  into  a  never-fading  paradise. 


SOUL-CULTURE.  48 

Our  material  earth  is  built  by  many  layers  wrapped  around  it  in  its  long 
history.  Geologists  dig  to  great  depths  or  go  where  the  earthquake  has  made 
openings  miles  in  depth,  and  lo  !  the  lowest  ground  or  rock  is  found  to  have  been 
formed  by  the  falling  of  leaves  and  grasses,  and  by  the  varied  wrappings  of  the 
ages  gone.  It  is  now  known  that  the  atmosphere  is  raining  forever  an  invisible 
dust  upon  this  ball,  making  it  larger  and  warmer  and  more  beautiful.  The  rock 
scraped  by  a  glacier  becomes  covered,  and  invites  moss  and  lichen  to  its  breast. 

The  human  soul  is  such  a  world.  The  truths  of  to-day,  of  yesterday,  of  the 
whole  past  are  settling  down  upon  it  a  golden  rain  from  the  hand  of  God,  making 
the  glorious  wrappings  of  time  and  of  the  great  futurity.  Thus  the  dark  facts  of 
earth,  its  slavery,  its  suffering,  its  sickness,  its  calamities,  its  burned  up  cities,  its 
solemn  cemeteries  of  the  dead,  all  may  be  transformed  into  human  spirit  and  make 
the  soul  come  to  heaven  at  last  rich  in  its  tenderness  and  love.  The  earthly 
knowledge  is  made  into  never  dying  power.  Bulwer  says,  "  Oh  how  much 
greater  is  the  soul  of  one  man  than  the  vicissitudes  of  the  whole  globe!"  And 
elsewhere  he  says,  "Not  in  the  knowledge  of  things  without,  but  in  the  perfection 
of  the  soul  within,  lies  the  true  empire  of  man." 

From  considerations  such  as  these,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  mystery  is  also 
a  servant  of  the  soul  trying  to  give  it  some  shade  of  beauty  which  no  plain  fact 
could  even  paint  upon  it.  To  eliminate  vanity,  to  overthrow  egotism,  to  check 
the  footsteps  in  the  path  of  sin,  to  keep  the  soul  tender,  to  bring  the  king  down  to 
the  level  of  his  servant,  I  can  conceive  of  nothing  more  powerful  than  the  mystery 
of  death.  When  the  mother  thinks  of  it  she  bids  her  children  good  night  with  a 
deeper  love  and  with  a  more  intense  prayer  that  God  will  be  an  angel  over  them 
by  night.  By  mystery  our  philosophers  are  made  to  be  as  children,  and,  indeed, 
the  hearts  of  all  educated  beincs  are  lifted  up  by  its  sad  but  strong  arms  above  the 
dust  of  earth,  and  are  borne  nearer  the  infinite  throne.  As  though  the  events  of 
earth  were  insufficient  to  exalt  us,  realms  are  created  where  unseen  hands  smite 
the  heart  strings,  and  where  the  air  trembles  with  a  grand  unknown  melody. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  Creator  has  poured  out  darkness  around  man  only 
to  harrass  him  on  life's  march.  All  things  are  ordered  for  good,  and  it  must  be 
that  to  the  facts  that  educate  mankind,  mystery  adds  the  shadow  of  facts,  to  carry 
this  education  along  some  new  paths.  When  the  world  sums  up  educational  in- 
fluences, it  enuBnerates  success,  and  acts,  and  languages.  But  this  estimate  is  too 
rude  and  coarse,  for  a  human  friend,  deeply  loved  and  long  known,  often  casts 
over  the  soul  a  culture  which  all  schools  would  have  failed  to  bestow.  Indeed, 
from  the  closets  of  the  great  schools,  wo  go  forth  with  empty  hands,  compared 
with  the  treasures  which  we  carry  from  the  bosom  of  the  noble  mother,  where  we 
spent  all  early  years,  and  from  tho  earth  and  sky  that  were  the  oceans  of  our 
island  childhood. 

Into  any  survey  of  educational  forces,  we  must  admit,  therefore,  elements 
that  escape  the  first  rude  estimate,  and  find  room  for  those  shadows  of  awful  facts 
that  perpetually  hang  their  dark  curtains  before  us. 

As  the  depth  of  mystery  is  only  felt  by  the  most  civilized  and  advanced  soul, 
and  is  a  cloud  of  which  a  savage  knows  nothing,  it  may  be  inferred,  that  it  comes 
not  as  a  penalty  of  culture,  but  as  a  delicate  hand  to  lead  it  to  a  still  better  being. 
The  solemn  question  of  Hamlet,  "To  be,  or  not  to  be,"  surpasses  the  books  of  the 
school-house  in  shaping  the  spirit  of  man.     The  willow  and  cypress,  that  mourn 


44  SOUL-CULTURE. 

over  the  tombs  of  our  dead,  impress  our  hearts  the  more  deeply,  because  the  wind 
that  sighs  through  them,  and  the  somber  shades  they  cast,  help  us  to  pass  over 
into  the  unknown  world.  Thus,  by  fact,  and  by  the  wandering  shadow  of  fact, 
the  soul  of  man  is  perpetually  fed.  They  are  the  only  manna  that  falls  for  it,  in 
this  wilderness  march. 

To  the  natural  power  of  the  world's  truths  it  pleased  God  to  add  the  "truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus."  The  soil  of  earth  was  too  poor  to  nourish  a  great  soul.  Into 
the  common  thoughts  of  society  the  heavens  opened  and  poured  out  the  vast 
truths  of  penitence,  faith,  charity,  purity  of  heart,  and  heaven  beyond.  To  live  a 
life  amid  such  surroundings  as  earth  now  possesses  must  be  only  to  live  a  career 
of  preparation  for  a  world  more  blessed.  To  lose  one's  soul  must  be  to  pass 
through  this  sublime  temple  without  drinking  in  its  virtue  and  holy  worship,  and 
not  only  to  have  rejected  the  true,  but  to  have  suffered  the  falsehoods  of  society  to 
rush  upon  the  delicately-strung  harp  of  the  spirit,  and  break  its  strings,  and  hush 
its  melodies.  "  Truth,"  says  the  great  dramatist,  "  are  the  wings  wherewith  we 
fly  to  heaven." 

O  friends  immortal !  earth  will  soon  disappear.  You  will  soon  pass  from  its 
varied  scenes.  While  you  walk  yet  on  this  mortal  land,  hold  most  dear  those 
truths  that  may  be  embodied  in  the  heart.  Let  your  creed  be  measured  by  the 
need  of  your  inner  life,  and  let  all  the  duties  and  joys  and  grief  of  life  only  wrap 
some  more  beautiful  garment  around  your  spirit.  Then,  called  to  go  hence,  you 
will  bear  away  with  you  the  good  of  earth,  as  the  sun,  rising  from  the  sea,  draws 
up  after  him  its  whitest  mist  and  most  delicate  colorings. 


VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE. 


The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us. — Corinthians  v.:  13.    Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. — Romans 
xiii. :  10. 

The  world  is  so  vast  that  no  human  foot  can  travel  over  it,  and  no  heart  occupy- 
all  places  with  its  home.  Going  to  Florida  in  winter,  or  Switzerland  in  the  sum- 
mer months,  or  to  the  New  England  hills  in  autumn,  one  feels  that  in  each  of 
these  wonderful  kingdoms  of  nature,  he  should  build  his  home,  and  live  his  whole 
life.  Coming  to  the  borders  of  a  sweet  lake  in  our  own  Northwest,  looking  down 
from  a  silent  forest  into  the  waters  that  are  clear  as  glass  to  the  depth  of  hundreds 
of  feet,  the  heart  suddenly  feels  that  it  is  good  to  be  there,  and  wishes  to  build 
three  tabernacles  for  self  and  friends,  upon  the  spot  where  such  divine  beauty  seems 
transfigured.  We  forget  our  limits  of  space  and  enjoy  a  feeling  of  infinity  of  space 
and  of  perpetual  life. 

Then  the  thought  comes  that  one  cannot  live  everywhere.  Do  all  we  may, 
there  will  be  beautiful  spots  where  we  can  possess  no  house.  There  will  be  waters 
we  cannot  look  into,  bird  songs  we  may  not  hear.  Is  is  sorrowful  that  there  are 
seas  whose  waves  do  not  beat  for  us.  Building  by  the  lakes,  a  voice  comes  up  from 
the  Mexican  gulf  inviting  us  to  its  early  spring.  Building  by  a  mountain  solitude, 
the  city  sends  out  to  us  its  joyous  shout,  its  music,  its  art,  its  eloquence — and  the 
mountain  home  is  tempted  even  to  ruin  by  a  counter  charm.  Sad  warfare  between 
finite  man  and  infinite  beauty  I 

In  this  bewilderment  of  the  beautiful  there  is  no  alternative  left  the  heart  but 
to  conclude  that  the  world  is  too  large  for  it.  It  cannot  go  all  over  it,  cannot  hold 
it  all  in  its  arms.  Life  is  too  short  for  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  grand  days  that 
open  their  morning  portals  between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Amazon,  hetween 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  Golden  Gate.  There  is  a  tomb  in  the  grass  that  cuts  short 
this  wandering  from  joy  to  joy.  The  tomb  is  the  author  of  all  cclectism.  With 
traces  of  sorrow  perhaps,  but  with  resignation,  the  limited  mortal  heart  must  say, 
the  world  is  too  large  for  me,  and  must  select  its  spot  for  life  and  for  death.  It 
must  plant  a  few  vines  and  trees  and  make  the  most  of  its  narrow  realm.  We 
cannot  pluck  all  roses,  the  hand  being  made  for  but  one. 

So  the  moral  world  of  our  God  is  too  large.  It  outreaches  our  mind  and  affec- 
tions. It  hath  motives  too  many  for  any  one,  but  just  enough  for  all ;  too  many 
for  a  life,  but  enough  for  all  lives.  All  mankind  make  up  a  kind  of  infinity  of 
mind  and  heart,  and  an  eternity  of  time,  and  in  this  vast  sea  of  humanity  all  God's 
moral  beauties  and  forces  find  demand.  But  in  any  one  soul  fluttering  along  over 
only  a  few  years,  as  a  winged  butterfly  flits  only  over  one  summer's  foliage,  the 
divine  motives  cannot  all  find  full  field  of  action.  The  heart  not  being  able  to  live 
everywhere  must  contentedly  pitch  its  tent  in  some  vale,  and  say,  "Here  will  I 
live  and  die."    We  would  not  narrow  down  life  from  choice,  but  accept  the  order 


46  VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE. 

of  necessity.     We  would  struggle  to  grasp  as  mucli  as  possible,  but  with  the  full 
assurance  that  to  comprehend  and  enjoy  all  is  denied  us  in  God's  decree. 

The  text,  embody  one  of  the  fragments  of  the  great  realm  of  motive,  Christ's 
love  of  man  and  man's  love  of  Christ,  cause  and  effect,  make  up  a  grand  incentive 
to  virtuous  action.  These  are  not  the  whole  of  truth.  They  are  golden  branches 
plucked  from  a  great  tropical  wilderness.  For  the  love  of  Christ  is  not  the  only 
thing  that  restrains,  nor  is  love  the  only  fulfillment  of  the  law.  In  Oriental  language 
a  part  is  a  whole,  and  one  beautiful  thing  is  a  complete  world.  The  fear  of  punish- 
ment also  restrains.  The  fear  of  Christ  restrains,  and  love  is  often  found  in  great 
depth  and  yet  the  law  is  not  fulfilled.  Paul  had  just  said,  "Knowing  the  terror  of 
the  Lord  we  persuade  men,"  and,  "We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ."  Such  souls  as  Peter,  had  loved  deeply,  and  yet  had  fallen  into  sin  ; 
so  that  love  did  not  fulfill  the  law.  The  "terror  of  the  Lord"  was  invoked  to  help 
restrain,  and  yet,  amid  these  phenomena  come  the  words,  "Love  is  the  fulfillment 
of  the  law"  and  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  Beautiful  transformation 
of  what  we  love  into  a  whole  universe. 

The  philanthropic  leaders  in  our  age  are  wonderfully  constrained  by  the  love 
of  mankind.  Pity  for  the  poor  human  race,  daily  moves  the  best  hearts  that  have 
ever  lived.  Before  this  immense  influence  hundreds  of  our  best  men  bow  as  before 
a  divine  command.  Thus  we  perceive  that  the  world  of  moral  motives  is  as  rich 
as  the  world  of  physical  beauty,  and  if  a  single  heart  cannot  build  its  home  by 
every  beautiful  vale,  but  must  go  from  the  many  to  the  one ;  so,  in  the  world  of 
morals,  the  heart  cannot  but  retreat  from  the  whole  universe,  to  take  refuge  in  a 
part.  Its  house  must  be  by  this  river  or  lake,  but  not  by  all  waters  that  sleep  or 
run.  The  love  of  Christ  is  a  beautiful  part  of  the  moral  world.  It  is  stated  as  if 
a  universe ;  but  this  is  a  statement  of  love,  rather  than  of  logic.  Love  always 
confuses  its  dream  with  the  picture  of  infinity.  "Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law," 
is  also  a  sublime  part  of  the  moral  world.  It  is  quoted  as  being  the  whole,  but 
this  too,  is  the  language  of  admiration  rather  than  of  logic  ;  for  if  this  were  the 
whole  truth,  it  would  only  be  necessary  for  men  to  be  sincere  in  sentiment,  and 
their  love  would  be  the  same  as  perfection.  In  the  midst  of  a  universe  so  vast, 
what  can  the  poor  limited  heart  do,  but  accept  of  some  one  great  impulse  an  im- 
pulse acquired  by  taste,  by  locality,  or  by  inheritance,  and  build  there  its  earthly 
house  for  its  few  years  here  below  ? 

There  is  a  sect  of  Christians  now  rising  up  in  our  land,  or  rather  coming  into 
the  world  a  second  time,  who  have  reached  what  they  call  the  higher  life.  Led  by 
such  noble  minds  as  Professor  Upham  and  Dr.  Boardman,  and  Inskip,  they  have 
developed  a  piety,  which  has  eliminated,  not  only  all  doubt  from  their  mind,  but 
all  care  and  sorrow  from  their  heart.  To  them  no  pain  can  come.  They  are  glad 
when  their  friends  die,  for  they  see  heaven  so  near,  and  they  say  that  God  is  so 
with  them,  that  this  earth  is  a  border  of  Paradise.  They  have  reproduced  with 
additional  beauties  the  quietism  of  Madame  Guyon  of  the  seventeenth  century 
Turning  their  gaze  upon  only  peace  in  God  it  has  become  a  universe  and  all  else 
has  faded  from  their  horizon . 

Thus  in  tranquility  of  soul  there  is  found  a  motive  of  life,  a  power  that  hurls 
into  the  sea  of  oblivion  the  sin  that  comes  from  this  world's  temptation,  and  the 
sorrow  that  comes  from  its  physical  pain  and  death.  The  grave  is  the  cradle  from 
which  earth  turns  away  and  leaves  the  sleeping  child  to  be  rocked  of  angels  and  to 
awake  with  God.  These  fresh  hearts  may  be  in  error  to-day,  as  that  woman  and 
the  great  Fenelon  were  two  hundred  years  ago ;    but  they  illustrate  the  general 


VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE.  47 

fact,  that  one  or  two  motives  are  all  that  the  heart  can  carry,  and  these  become  to 
that  heart  a  whole  world.     They  are  to  it  immensity  and  eternity. 

To  the  city  of  God  there  are  many  paths,  paths  for  different  centuries,  different 
meridians,  and  different  individuals.  There  was  something  in  the  times  of  Calvin 
and  Luther  and  on  to  Jonathan  Edwards,  that  enabled  the  motive  of  punishment 
to  be  very  influential  for  good.  To  inquire  whether  anything  would  have  done  as 
good  service,  would  be  about  like  the  inquiry,  whether  some  other  method  of  light 
and  heat  might  not  have  been  resorted  to  by  the  Creator,  that  would  have  made 
our  existing  sun  unnecessary.  It  is  certain  that  "the  terror  of  the  Lord"  wielded 
a  mighty  influence  on  the  past  centuries;  and  the  same  impulse  of  virtue  will 
always  be  extant  and  active ;  but  to  the  millions  of  a  subsequent  age  a  new  impulse 
is  liable  to  arise,  and,  expressing  itself  in  the  words,  "the  love  of  Christ  constrain- 
eth  us,"  may,  for  a  time,  be  a  complete  universe  to  the  existing  heart.  The  horizon 
is  daily  swept  for  new  clouds. 

New  motives  are  always  unfolding  and  blossoming  with  new  colors.  Our 
fullest  roses  were  once  single  leafed.  Some  seek  riches  for  fear  of  a  poor-house  at 
last,  or  the  jail  for  debt.  Nobler  minds  seek  wealth,  because  of  the  education  and 
beauty  it  will  buy  for  the  dear  loved  ones,  or  for  the  brothers  in  the  street.  Each 
age  and  each  form  of  government  is  fashioning  a  religious  argument  for  itself, 
despotism  admitting  the  element  of  authority,  republicanism  admitting  the  sweeter 
influence  of  good  result,  caring  less  for  ipse  dixit  than  for  the  fitness  of  things. 
Motives  come  and  go  along  with  the  coming  and  going  of  new  times  and  new  men. 
The  arguments  for  a  holy  life  change.  The  old  ones  do  not  become  false,  but  they 
fail  to  please.  New  ones  are  demanded  by  the  new  minds  and  hearts  coming  into 
life.  In  the  childhood  of  you  in  this  hall,  who  are  oldest  to-day,  it  was  customary 
to  frighten  young  hearts  into  virtue.  We  little  children  feared  a  dark  room  for 
reasons  good  then,  but  poor  now.  All  misfortunes  were  the  vengeance  of  our 
Heavenly  Father  following  some  bad  act  of  the  past  week  or  day.  We  did  not 
hear  much  about  the  text,  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth."  But  the 
Christian  children  of  to-day,  are  led  along  virtue's  path,  by  being  shown  the  lovely 
side  of  Christianity.  Music,  books,  Christmas  festivals,  tender  Sabbath-school 
teachers  and  a  thousand  inventions  of  love,  draw  their  spirits  up  toward  that  Being, 
who  gave  existence  and  name  to  Christianity.  The  new  motive  rises  like  a  star. 
The  love  of  Christ  constrains  them. 

There  can  be  no  one  impulse  to  virtue  that  shall  monopolize  all  souls  and  all 
times.  Mind  is  too  full  of  variety.  The  times  change  too  much  and  we  are  too 
much  changed  in  them.  If  there  be  one  word  deeply  carved  upon  God's  works 
that  word  is  variation.  In  the  strata  of  the  earth,  on  its  surface,  in  the  faces  of 
men,  in  the  pursuits  of  society  there  is  the  record  of  a  God  who  is  infinite  in  forms 
and  qualities.  Next  to  the  beauty  of  God's  unchangeableness  in  pripciples,  comes 
the  beauty  of  His  variety  in  non-essentials.  The  laws  of  vegetation  are  perpetual, 
but  the  leaves  and  flowers  and  fruits  vary.  The  peach  was  born  yesterday,  but 
trees,  in  the  eternity  past.  God  is  fixed  as  to  righteousness  for  himself  and  for 
His  children  ;  but  the  motives  to  it  among  men  assume  new  shapes  with  the  shift- 
ing time  and  place.  It  is  always  purity  that  lies  before  the  soul ;  but  whether 
the  heart  shall  be  led  to  it  by  the  intrinsic  goodness  of  the  object  or  by  the  fear 
of  punishment  for  seeking  the  opposite,  are  details  that  admit  of  variation.  A 
deliberative  mind  will  be  influenced  by  both  ideas;  the  passionate  heart  by  only 
the  goodness  of  virtue,  seeking  it  as  the  hungry  child  seeks  food ;  the  cowardly, 
timid  nature  will  seek  it  from  fear.  The  variety  of  motive  will  be  demanded  by 
the  variety  of  mind. 


48  VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE. 

A  deeply  religious  woman  objects  to  the  hymn, 

"Prone  to  wander  Lord  I  feel  it 
Prone  to  leave  the  God  I  love," 

saying  that  she  feels  no  pronencss  to  wander,  none  to  leave  the  Good  she  loves. 
She  says,  "How  would  it  sound  in  our  ear  for  a  mother  to  sing  to  her  child, 

"Prone  to  wander  child  I  feel  it 
Prone  to  leave  the  child  I  love?" 

To  a  nature  of  this  kind  the  motives  of  Christian  life  are  formed  on  Christ 
himself.  All  considerations  of  perdition  are  out  of  the  question.  The  love  of  Christ 
constraineth.  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  law  in  all  this  passionate  heart.  It  was  so 
in  the  school  of  Madame  Cuyon  and  Fenelon  and  the  Wesleys — and  will  always 
be  so  whenever  the  soul  rises  to  a  passion  in  love  and  faith.  Perfect  love  casteth 
out  fear. 

The  higher  life  of  religion  will  find  its  motive  in  religion  itself.  As  the  musi- 
cian finds  his  motive,  not  in  the  pain  of  discord,  but  in  the  sweetness  of  music,  so 
the  higher  order  of  Christian  life  will  find  its  impulse,  not  in  any  fear  of  hell,  but 
in  the  beauty  and  good  of  Jesus  Christ.  As  art  is  not  the  avoidance  of  deformity, 
but  the  study  of  positive  beauty,  so  Christianity  is  not  a  fiight  from  wrath,  but  a 
loving  development  and  enjoyment  of  the  more  perfect  life.  God  is  not  to  be 
sought  because  there  is  a  Satan,  but  because  there  is  a  God. 

When  patriotism  runs  low  and  there  is  impending  war  it  is  necessary  for  the 
State  to  repeat  the  law  that  treason  is  death.  This  law  is  a  perpetual  fact.  This 
law  will  never  be  repealed,  but  it  is  kept  in  existence  only  by  the  low  form  of  pa- 
triotism possible  here  and  there.  But  the  true  citizen  lives  above  it,  and  ignores 
it,  and  wholly  forgets  it,  for  his  positive  love  of  his  native  land  constrains  him. 
It  fulfills  the  law.  Behind  the  mercenary  Persian  troops  went  the  driver  with  his 
whip,  a  man  with  a  whip  behind  each  squad,  and  the  victory  came  not  from  love 
of  country,  but  from  fear  of  the  scourge ;  but  the  moment  a  country  becomes 
worthy  of  love  and  its  citizens  become  intelligent  enough  to  love  it,  the  whip  be- 
hind the  soldiers  is  superceded  by  the  honor  and  happiness  in  front.  The  flag  over- 
head with  its  red,  white  and  blue  carries  a  divine  impulse  in  its  waving  folds.  Its 
threads  are  the  threads  of  life — its  red  is  the  blood  of  men's  hearts.  Before  this 
banner  of  beauty  the  fear  of  a  Persian  whip  falls  out  of  all  use  and  even  remem- 
brance. 

It  would  be  dreadful  if  Christianity  were  less  noble  than  patriotism  and  must 
be  expected  to  draw  its  activity  from  a  whip  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  banner  of 
salvation  is  grander  than  any  that  ever  waved  over  bloody  fields,  even  of  human 
liberty.  It  rustles  in  the  winds  of  immortality.  It  is  not  the  flag  of  a  transient 
state  full  of  the  graves  of  our  children,  but  the  flag  of  that  great  Fatherland  where 
there  is  no  death  and  no  tears.  Under  its  snowy  white  and  its  heavenly  azure,  sol- 
diers in  the  higher  life  need  no  impulse  but  the  love  of  their  passion-full  hearts. 

Hence  the  better  men  become,  the  more  Christ-like  Christians  become  ;  the 
more  will  the  world  of  punishment  give  place  to  the  world  of  peace  and  joy  in  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  more  intelligent  and  cultivated  men  become,  the 
more  will  they  be  moved  by  the  positive  side  of  religion  ;  by  its  excellence  rather 
than  by  its  penalties. 

But  amid  all  the  fluctuations  of  patriotism  the  law  of  death  for  treason  remains 
written  on  the  statute  book  of  nations.  And  so  in  Christianity  however  any  class 
or  any  age  may  rise  above  the  influence  of  penalty  for  sin,  yet  punishment  remains 
a  perpetual  fact  in  the  ecomony  of  our  God.  Its  dark  cloud  will  rise  or  fall  accord- 


VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE.  49 

ing  to  the  quality  of  humanity.  "Wherever  there  are  hearts  that  can  see  no  good- 
ness in  holiness,  none  in  honesty,  and  in  charity,  none  in  Jesus  Christ,  none  in  the 
worship  of  God,  wherever  there  are  minds  incapable  of  being  led  by  the  intrinsic 
good  of  religion,  there  this  dark  cloud  of  divine  wrath  is  ready  to  descend  and  to 
envelop  with  its  thunders  the  soul  that  cannot  and  will  not  be  enveloped  by  love. 
The  result  of  sin  expressed  in  all  religions  by  the  word  "hell"  is  a  perpetual  influ- 
ence, liable  to  go  and  come  as  humanity  advances  or  retreats  in  the  path  of  intel- 
ligence and  morals, — but  it  must  be  a  perpetual  fact  in  a  world  of  beings  capable 
of  being  immoral.    A  world  of  sin  must  be  a  world  of  penalty. 

As  we  said  in  the  outset,  one  heart  cannot  live  in  all  the  beautiful  places  of 
earth,  neither  can  it  be  led  by  all  the  motives  of  entire  humanity.  "What  is  true 
of  a  mind  may  be  true  of  an  ag-e.  It  is  possible  for  a  whole  age  to  become  like 
Guyon  and  Fenolon,  enamored  of  one  idea,  and,  forgetting  the  gloomy  hell,  draw 
all  its  spiritual  life  from  a  vision  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  His  redeemed  earth  and 
happy  paradise.  The  love  of  Christ  may  constrain  a  whole  age.  This  ought  par- 
ticularly to  become  the  case  in  an  age  of  unusual  education  and  culture,  and  in  an 
age  that  develops  the  goodness  and  benevolence  of  Jesus  Christ.  An  age  that 
loves  the  poor,  that  feeds  and  clothes  the  destitute  and  famine-stricken,  that  pours 
out  millions  upon  a  burned  up  city,  that  governs  its  children  by  love  instead  of 
torture,  that  enthrones  kindness  in  public  schools  and  even  in  prisons  and  jails,  and 
that  does  all  these  new  things  in  the  name  of  a  positive  study  of  Christ,  will  not 
be  an  age  that  will  constantly  threaten  mankind,  but  an  age  that  will  gently  lead 
men  toward  the  divine  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

In  days  when  men  cannot  whip  their  children,  in  days  when  men  are  arrested 
for  cruelty  to  dumb  beasts,  in  days  when  we  teach  our  children  beautiful  hymns 
and  when  we  reward  them  for  any  act  of  goodness,  in  days  when  there  are  homes 
for  the  friendless  and  for  the  fallen,  and  millions  are  poured  out  for  colleges  where 
anybody  can  learn  any  science  or  art  without  charge,  in  days  when  a  child  need 
not  be  a  beggar,  in  days  in  which  Kussia  and  America  are  fresh  in  the  glory 
wreaths  of  having  set  free  60,000,000  of  slaves,  it  can  hardly  be  expected  that  the 
pulpit,  ignoring  this  grand  uprising  of  tenderness,  will  daily  point  the  horrors  of 
perdition  while  the  very  street  is  being  enchanted  by  this  vision  of  love.  Oh  what 
a  betrayal  this  would  be  of  the  pulpit's  trust  I 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  motive  of  virtue  found  in  the  word  punishment 
exists.  It  will  always  exist ;  but  if  there  comes  along  an  era  that  is  blinded  to  this 
argument  by  having  its  eyes  fixed  upon  the  love  of  God  and  the  Saviour,  then 
let  the  public  heart  enjoy  to  the  full,  this  new  and  powerful  passion. 

The  terrors  of  the  law  have  had  whole  periods  allotted  to  themselves  and  they 
produced  the  middle  ages,  and  before  them,  the  Mosaic  age.  It  is  possible  that 
an  era  that  shall  study  the  positive  side  of  religion  and  shall  fly  to  Christ,  not 
because  there  is  a  Satan,  but  because  there  is  a  Christ,  may  work  out  for  the 
human  race  better  things  than  came  from  the  age  of  monastic  scourgings  or  from 
the  penalties  of  Moses.  A  book  loved  under  the  name  of  "The  new  Testament" 
declares  that  "ye  are  not  come  unto  a  mount  that  might  be  touched  and  that 
burned  with  fire,  nor  unto  blackness  and  darkness  and  tempest  ^^  ^j.  ^^  ^  so 
terrible  that  Moses  said  "I  exceedingly  quake  and  fear,  but  ye  are  come  unto 
Mount  Sion  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God."  The  words  spoken  indeed  to 
Christians  do  nevertheless  announce  to  all  mankind  the  ruling  passion  of  the 
Gospel.  Its  great  spectacle  is  not  a  Sinai  but  a  Mount  Sion,  not  a  fiend  devouring 
men,  but  a  Saviour  and  a  heavenly  Father  reaching  out  the  open  arms  of  infinite 
love  to  gather  in  us  children. 


50  VARIATION  OF  MORAL  MOTIVE. 

If  we  have  come  to  an  age  that  seems  to  take  up  this  dominant  impulse  of  Chris- 
tianity and  to  depress  other  motives,  we  cannot  but  bless  God  that  He  postponed 
all  our  cradles  and  graves  for  this  era  of  faith  and  love  and  peace.  We  are,  I  trust, 
all  more  than  willing  to  give  our  hearts  to  the  spirit  of  our  own  times,  and  would 
not  for  any  gold  go  back  to  the  age  of  terrorism  in  politics,  in  domestic  life  and  in 
Christianity.  Confessing  punishment  to  exist  as  a  potential  idea,  confessing 
prisons  to  exist  for  criminals,  and  death  to  threaten  all  traitors,  and  divine  justice 
to  hang  like  a  cloud  over  sin,  yet  we  must  rejoice  in  all  tendencies  of  ages  and  of 
men  to  base  their  moral  life  upon  the  attractiveness  of  the  good. 

A  French  writer  living  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV  says :  "Bourdaloue  in  his 
sermons  astounds  me."  This  was  enough  for  one  tongue.  "Massilon  frightens 
me."  That  also  was  well.  "Bossuet  makes  me  believe."  "Fenelon  makes  me  to 
hope  and  love."  Oh  beautiful  power  of  each  of  this  matchless  group  I  If  indi- 
viduals thus  have  a  channel  in  which  their  souls  must  run  all  their  life  if  it  would 
go  with  any  power  or  any  happiness,  so  a  whole  generation  may  have  its  path,  not 
as  wide  as  all  truth,  but  very  beautiful  to  it  and  leading  straight  to  paradise. 

The  preaching  of  religion  from  the  standpoint  of  fear  is  the  shortest  mode,  is 
the  easiest  method,  if  quantity  of  thought  is  considered,  for  it  is  only  necessary  to 
breathe  familiar  anathemes  over  all  the  sinful  race  of  men.  It  is  a  longer  and 
more  difficult  work  to  trace  out  the  application  of  the  Gospel  to  all  the  details  of 
human  life — to  politics,  to  home,  to  childhood,  middle  life  and  old  age.  To  gather 
up  the  rationalism  of  Christianity,  its  spiritualism — and  its  humanity,  to  unfold 
its  Jesus  Christ — its  Holy  Spirit,  its  faith,  hope  and  charity — to  develop  in  infinite 
riches  of  thought  and  feeling,  is  a  hard,  long  task  compared  with  the  authoritative 
announcement  of  infinite  sorrow  to  almost  the  whole  human  race.  But  let  us  all 
rejoice  that  the  age  demands  of  us  all,  pulpit  and  pew,  the  longer  and  more 
thoughtful  method  of  proclaiming  the  manifold  riches  of  Christianity. 

The  love  of  Christ  that  constrains  us  is  not  only  a  passion  of  that  divine  heart, 
but  it  is  a  wisdom  and  kindness  penetrating  a  philosophy.  This  love  of  man  flows 
and  reflows  through  all  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  the  Gospel.  In  the 
golden  rule,  in  the  blessing  of  children,  in  the  law  of  liberty  and  equality,  in  the 
doctrines  of  salvation,  faith,  penitence  and  purity,  in  the  vision  of  God  as  a  Father, 
in  the  delineation  of  immortal  life,  the  love  of  Christ  is  perceived — like  a  beauti- 
ful soul  inhabiting  a  beautiful  body.  It  constrains  us.  It  is  not  a  simple  passion 
of  Christ  for  man,  but  it  is  a  wisdom,  an  adaptation  so  kind  that  men  call  it  love, 
— it  being  too  full  of  warmth  and  tears  to  be  called  a  philosophy. 


OLD  TESTAMENT  INSPIRATION. 


Psalms  xxiii  and  cix. 


The  Mosaic  age  presents  to  the  Christian  and  general  student  a  topic  of 
uncommon  interest.  The  interest  is  rendered  uncommon  by  the  questions  of 
inspiration  and  policy,  and  by  the  entanglement  of  the  Mosaic  writings  with  the 
questions  of  geology,  and  other  sciences,  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  questions  of 
morals  on  the  other. 

Approaching  any  other  old  writings,  we  are  permitted  to  read,  and  acceptor 
reject,  because  they  are  confessedly  human  ;  but  the  contents  of  the  Hebrew  books 
are  spread  upon  a  back-ground  of  inspiration,  and  this  claim  excites  a  clamor  and 
debate. 

In  our  remarks  this  morning  we  shall  speak  of  the  Mosaic  writings  only  as 
related  to  morals,  leaving  the  geological  question  to  future  times  when  that  science 
shall  have  become  more  exact.  In  order  properly  to  estimate  the  morals  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  it  is  necessary  to  define  inspiration,  for  upon  that  definition 
will  depend  the  answer  to  the  inquiry  whether  the  Old  Testament  is  inspired. 

If,  by  inspiration,  one  is  to  understand  a  perfect  invasion  of  the  human  heart 
and  mind  by  the  Infinite  Spirit,  so  that  the  human  is  borne  away  from  itself,  and 
thinks  only  in  the  words  and  thoughts  of  God,  then  we  should  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  there  was  no  such  inspiration  in  the  souls  of  the  writers  of  the 
Mosaic  age.  God  is  perfection.  Hence  a  human  mind  penetrated  by  the  Deity 
would  deal  only  in  perfect  ideas  and  actions.  But,  if  by  inspiration  we  may  un- 
derstand Divine  assistance  given  to  man,  such  that  he  became  enabled  to  think 
wise  thoughts  and  bett'jr,  and  devise  useful  things  above  the  ordinary  thought  and 
utility  of  the  times,  then,  the  Old  Testament  affords  abundant  evidence  of  in- 
spiration. 

God  never  at  once  thoroughly  equips  man.  Minerva  is  fabled  to  have  leaped 
forth  full-armed  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter,  but  aside  from  fable  there  is  no  record 
of  any  such  event;  The  Divine  Spirit  never  creates  a  perfect  man,  but  sets  him 
going  with  the  permission  to  become  perfect.  The  plan  of  God  is  that  of  perpetual 
assistance.  He  fills  the  earth  with  ores,  with  coals,  with  the  power  to  produce 
harvests  of  grass,  fruits  and  grains,  and  then  endows  man  with  an  expansive 
faculty,  such  that  he  can  develop  the  world  and  himself.  The  world,  as  God  gave 
it  to  His  Children,  is  one  of  opportunities  and  outfits,  and  not  of  completed  things. 

Inspiration  would  therefore  assume  the  form  of  a  help  rather  than  of  a  full 
occupation  of  the  human  intellect  and  feelings,  and  would  no  more  be  a  perfect 
unfolding  of  God's  whole  character  than  the  wild  Indian  is  an  expression  of  God's 
perfect  ideal  of  the  creature  man. 

Eternity  being  the  time,  and  immensity  the  arena  of  Deity,  there  would  seem 
demanded  a  graduated  method,  such,  tliat  to-morrow  might  always  promise  some- 
thing better  than  yesterday,  to-night  or  to-day  brings.     In  harmony  with  such  a 


62  OLD   TESTAMENT  INSPIRATION. 

presumption,  nature  is  full  of  simple  beginnings  and  grand  openings.  Coming  to 
inquire  about  revelation,  we  should  expect  the  phenomenon  of  imperfection,  but 
of  great  help,  also,  and  great  progress.  A  revelation  that  should  wholly  relieve 
man  from  further  effort  and  inquiry  along  the  path  of  truth,  would  be  in  discord 
with  the  economy  of  earth,  for  man's  success  comes  from  the  perpetual  struggle 
into  which  he  is  cast  by  the  world's  method.  The  Creator  would  no  more  grant 
man  a  perfect  revelation  than  He  would  furnish  man  with  ready  made  furniture, 
or  houses,  or  clothing. 

In  the  Mosaic  economy,  therefore,  we  must  expect  the  human  element  to 
predominate,  and  to  be  still  engaged  in  the  common  struggle  after  more  and  better 
truth.  It  would  be  unwise  to  suppose  the  Old  Testament  a  perfect  image  of  God 
— the  ideal  Infinite.  There  is  no  emblazonment  of  God  anywhere.  Do  you 
imagine  that  when  you  find  man  in  the  state  of  nature — man  as  seen  in  the  islands 
of  the  South  Sea,  or  as  seen  in  the  wilds  of  our  America — the  red  man,  you  have 
found  an  emblazonment  of  the  Deity  ?  By  no  means.  Tou  have  found  only  the 
place  where  God  has  made  a  beginning  ;  the  place,  not  where  God  has  finished  a 
palace,  but  where  the  earth  has  been  broken  for  a  foundation,  and  where  a  stake 
has  been  driven.  Upon  earth,  when  men  are  ab«ut  to  build  a  marble  structure 
destined  to  be  full  of  elegance  of  finish,  and  full,  perhaps,  of  works  of  art,  they 
first  build  a  wide  fence  about  the  area,  and  then  descend  into  the  wet  earth  and 
work  in  rough  rock.  Thus  the  Creator  proceeds  in  His  universe,  and  there  is  no 
perfect  manifestation  anywhere  of  His  full  glory  or  wisdom. 

The  Mosaic  economy  was  nothing  else  than  a  progress.  Earth  had  come  to 
Polytheism,  to  Pantheism,  to  Feticism.  The  idea  of  a  Superior  Force  was  uni- 
versal, but  it  had  not  been  gathered  up  into  a  great  central  point  and  perceived  to 
be  God.  Each  thing  that  had  power,  such  as  the  sun  and  moon  and  sea — each 
object  that  was  far  away,  stars  and  sky — each  creature  that  was  terrible,  such  as 
serpents  and  crocodiles — each  animal  that  was  very  useful,  as  the  cow  and  the 
horse,  became  deities,  and  were  worshipped  as  such.  The  air  was  full  of  super- 
human powers.  Disease  was  a  bad  spirit.  Thus  the  idea  of  a  superhuman  being 
was  broken  up  into  fragments,  and  was  found  in  a  serpent  or  stone,  or  in  the  fire 
or  wind.  Under  such  a  discordant  belief,  morals  were  discordant,  and  customs 
horrible.  With  a  serpent  or  a  crocodile  for  a  deity,  man  became  cruel.  He  could 
slay  his  children,  or  eat  his  fellow,  for  his  Fetich  was  a  bloody  devourer,  and  the 
worship  must  become  such.  The  slaughter  of  children  became  common.  Even 
Kome  could  crowd  her  vast  amphitheatres  in  order  to  sec  captives  eaten  by  beasts, 
or  slain  by  each  other  in  contest. 

It  is  necessary  for  the  superhuman  power  in  the  air  to  be  called  away  from 
the  many  into  the  one.  It  is  necessary  to  dismiss  the  sun  with  its  flame,  the 
lightning  with  its  tongue  of  fire,  the  serpent  with  its  poison,  the  crocodile  with 
its  sharp  teeth.  It  is  necessary  to  dismiss  the  iron-hearted  Jupiter,  and  the  Apollo 
with  rattling  arrows,  and  Juno  full  of  resentment,  and  come  to  a  Being,  called 
God,  infinite  and  unchangeable  in  His  being,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness 
and  truth. 

With  such  a  sublime  centre,  life  moves  afresh.  The  serpent  becomes  only  a 
rude  form  of  brute  life.  Things  thought  to  be  gods  sink  to  the  level  of  the  dust, 
and  no  longer  influence  human  hearts,  passions  and  hopes  and  fears,  but,  instead 
of  these,  there  is  one  vast  influence,  pure  and  unchanging,  drawing  all  men  up  to 
it.  The  greatest  single  idea  possible  to  mankind  is  the  idea  of  God  as  a  Being, 
only  one  all-wise,  all-good,  all-powerful.  Looking  up  to  this,  nations  cast  away 
their  barbarism,  and  the  individuals,  Elijah-like,  ascend  in  a  beautiful  chariot. 


OLD   TESTAMENT  INSPIRATION.  6S 

The  Mosaic  age  was  the  bearer  of  this  idea.  How  far  it  may  have  known  the 
truth  as  to  geology,  I  know  not,  and  care  not.  There  may  be  men  that  know, 
and  men  that  care,  but,  amid  these  indeterminate  questions,  one  thing  is  clear, 
that  the  Hebrew  age  was  the  perfect  filtration  and  purification  of  the  idea  of  God. 
Perfect  as  compared  with  all  before  it  and  about  it.  There  is  the  source  of  our 
Christianity  and  civilization.  It  was  the  Hebrew  philosophy  and  its  immediate 
result,  Christianity,  that  swept  away  the  iron  Jupiter,  and  bloody  Mars,  and 
revengeful  Juno,  and  all  bonds  and  stakes  and  stones  of  the  terrible  past — swept 
them  away,  and  gave  us  the  uniform  morals  and  humanity  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

But,  while  the  Jews  were  cherishing  and  developing  this  idea,  they  did  not 
cease  at  once  to  be  men,  and  become  the  perfect  image  of  God.  From  the  method 
of  the  world  thus  far,  it  is  probable  it  will  require  ten  thousand  years  for  humanity 
to  produce  a  perfect  civilization.  Six  thousand  years  having  already  passed,  it  is 
perfectly  safe  to  say  that  four  thousand  years  more  will  be  needed.  Such  being, 
in  part  at  least,  the  fact,  the  Jews  in  their  brief  life  could  only  have  moved  over 
part  of  this  vast  circle,  and  must  necessarily  reveal  the  ordinary  attributes  of 
mankind  in  the  details  of  their  career.  Whatever  was  human  custom,  would  be 
their  custom.  If  wars  of  extermination  were  the  rule  of  that  age,  and  were 
necessary  in  order  to  advance  the  Hebrew  Theocracy,  then  they  would  appear 
with  Moses  and  Aaron  as  leaders,  just  as  naturally,  as  though  Hannibal  or  Caesar 
were  leading  the  Israelites.  The  ago  was  not  one  in  which  the  Deity  has  dis- 
placed man,  but  one  in  which  man  was  blessed  with  one  or  two  new  truths. 

For  example,  let  it  be  granted  that  Watt  was  inspired  to  invent  the  steam 
engine.  Mankind  needed  a  new  motive  power.  Unaided,  man  had  failed  to  reach 
any  thing  better  than  the  horse,  the  ox,  or  man-power,  on  land,  and  than  sails  on 
the  sea.  Watt  is  at  this  crisis  divinely  aided  to  the  discovery  of  steam.  But  this 
would  not  imply  that  his  engine  was  perfect,  or  that  anything  about  it  should 
cease  to  be  human.  The  machine  was  rude.  A  boy  stood  by  to  work  the  valves. 
Its  motion  was  only  in  a  straight  line.  It  worked  a  pump,  but  could  not  turn  a 
wheel.  Here  it  was  in  the  mines,  powerful  but  imperfect ;  inspired  but  incomplete. 
The  inspiration  began  and  ended  in  a  single  idea — a  simple  beginning.  The 
engine  was  developed  until  the  instrument  has  reached  a  beauty  and  perfection 
undreamed  of  by  the  originator  himself.  The  first  instrument  is  set  aside  by  the 
new  development,  and  yet,  the  first  one  was  inspired,  and  the  second  one  human. 
Again,  the  inspiration  of  Watt's  engine  not  only  was  imperfect  as  to  the  engine, 
but  it  did  not  extend  beyond  it.  The  men  who  worked  it  were  common  men. 
They  were  profane,  they  stole,  they  told  falsehoods,  they  fought,  they  were  more 
or  less  indolent,  they  abused  their  children  and  their  wives  after  the  fashion  of 
all  the  colliers  and  all  ignorant  classes  of  that  age.  And  this,  too,  with  the  in- 
spired machine  in  the  centre  of  their  daily  life. 

This  illustrates  the  only  intelligible  theory  of  the  Mosaic  age.  It  was  carry- 
ing forward  an  inspired  idea — an  idea  that  was  to  outlive  all  Polytheism,  and 
transform  the  face  of  society.  But  the  inspiration  hung  around  the  idea  and  did 
not  wander  from  it.  The  instant  you  left  the  idea,  you  touched  humanity.  The 
people  fought,  and  cheated,  and  held  and  sold  slaves,  just  as  the  Greeks  and 
Eomans  did,  and  acquired  land  after  the  fashion  of  the  barbaric  period.  But  this 
Is  no  objection  to  the  inspiration  of  their  idea  of  God.  It  might  as  well  bo  objected 
to  the  inspiration  of  Watt's  engine  that  the  coal-heavers  fought  and  lived  dis- 
honorably.    Segardless  of  the  customs  of  men,  the  idea  of  the  steam  engine  was 


64  OLD   TESTAMENT  INSPIRATION. 

grand  on  the  outset.     And  so  the  Mosaic  age,  regardless  of  its  particulara,  was 
sublime  in  its  crystalization  of  the  ideas  of  God. 

The  character  of  individuals  is  often  a  thing  distinct  from  the  character  of 
their  work.  The  men  that  discovered  America,  or  that  settled  Virginia,  may- 
have  been  freebooters,  as  some  claim,  and  yet,  their  vessels  may  have  sailed  by  a 
divine  inspiration.  The  inspiration  would  not  include  their  character,  but  would 
look  to  the  future — far  off— of  America.  God  is  always  suffering  the  individual 
to  fall  away,  and  disappear,  leaving  behind  him  something  about  to  become 
divine. 

Thus  Moses  and  all  his  compeers  walked  in  a  human  world  having  one  divine 
element  in  it.  Holding  to  a  true  idea  of  God  as  a  single  spirit,  eternal  and  indi- 
visible, they  stole  land  like  men  at  large.  Separating  Deity  from  a  Fetich,  they 
sold  slaves  like  the  old  Persians.  Appointed  to  bear  religion  a  few  steps  onward, 
they  still  claimed  a  plurality  of  wives  like  the  Philistines,  and  falsified  like  the 
heathen  world.  But,  as  on  the  freebooter's  ship  there  may  have  sailed  once  the  civi- 
lization of  England  from  the  shores  of  old  Eome,  or  as  on  the  gold-seeking  ships 
of  Spain  there  was  borne  the  coming  grandeur  of  America,  an  invisible  passenger 
sleeping  in  the  festoons  on  the  vessel's  bow,  so,  in  the  great  Hebrew  vessel  sailing 
across  the  dark  flood  rolling  between  the  Amalekites  and  the  nineteenth  century, 
there  was  an  invisible  passenger  of  divine  spirit  and  purpose,  but  the  men  who 
worked  the  sails,  and  handled  the  cargo,  and  cast  and  heaved  the  anchor,  were 
tumultuous,  sinful  seamen,  after  the  fashion  of  the  times. 

These  thoughts  bring  me  now  to  the  structure  of  the  psalms  of  David.  Many 
of  them  being  deeply  religious,  and  suitable  to  all  religious  hearts  everywhere, 
there  are  others  that  belonged  only  to  the  days  when  they  were  sung.  If  it  was 
permitted  the  Israelites  to  destroy  their  enemies,  and  thus  establish  the  better 
their  Monotheism,  it  was  necessary  they  should  sing  battle-songs,  and  that  much 
of  their  hymnology  should  be  military.  In  days  of  an  American  struggle  with 
England,  the  song  of  "The  Star-spangled  Banner"  might  be  useful  and  truthful. 
It  might  impel  men  along  the  best  path  of  the  period.  In  France  a  few  years  the 
''Marseillaise"  was  rising  with  power,  for  it  was  necessary  for  the  people  to 
check  the  reckless  ambition  of  Louis  Napoleon.  These  hymns  might  be  confessed 
to  possess  a  temporary  inspiration.  That  is,  their  good  is  unmistakable.  But  let 
the  world  and  civilization  advance,  let  war  become  a  crime  and  a  barbarism,  let 
peace  become  not  only  an  article  of  religion  but  a  policy  of  all  nations,  let  all 
disputes  be  settled  by  arbitration  and  payment  of  damages,  and  in  that  golden 
age  the  war  songs  of  America  and  France  become  a  poor  dead  letter,  and  no  heart 
remains  so  warlike  as  to  sing  them. 

Thus  with  such  psalms  as  the  one  hundred  and  ninth.  They  had  a  temporary 
significance  depending  altogether  upon  the  kind  of  work  the  Hebrews  had  to 
perform.  If  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  go  to  battle,  it  was  desirable  they  should 
have  a  battle  song,  a  Marseillaise.  If  their  hands  must  do  bloody  work  they  were 
entitled  to  sing  a  terrific  psalm.  But  the  moment  the  Hebrew  method  of  life 
passed  away,  the  moment  their  war  for  national  existence  ceased,  that  moment  the 
one  hundred  and  ninth  psalm  lost  its  value.  For  if  the  bloody  Hebrew  war  is 
over,  so  is  its  battle-song.  There  is  no  logic  in  perpetuating  a  war-cry  after  the 
war  itself  has  passed  away. 

But  when  you  read  the  twenty-third  psalm,  or  a  majority  of  the  whole  col- 
lection, you  have  not  the  war-cry  of  a  generation,  but  the  yearnings  and  feelings 
of  all  humanity.     Hence  I  would  say  that  the  one  hundred  and  ninth  psalm  was 


OLD   TESTAMENT  INSPIRATION.  55 

the  good  of  an  hour,  the  twenty-third  psalm  is  the  good  of  all  human  life  this 
side  the  grave. 

There  is,  it  seems  to  me,  no  other  conceivable  method  of  treating  the  Old 
Testament  than  that  found  in  the  word  eclecticism.  We  must  seek  out  its  perma- 
nent truths,  follow  its  central  ideas,  and  love  them  the  more  because  they  were 
eliminated  from  the  barbaric  ages  with  so  much  sorrow  and  bloodshed.  He  that 
can  give  the  Mosaic  age  and  the  old  Jewish  people  only  a  contemptuous  sneer,  is 
a  person  of  little  reflection  and  gratitude.  Much  as  our  feelings  all  rise  up  against 
the  severity  of  those  ages,  yet,  in  those  very  times  there  was  being  wrought  out 
for  us  a  religion  that  should  introduce  Christianity,  and  thus  our  morals  and 
our  liberty. 

Looking  back,  we  preceive  not  only  Washington,  and  then  Luther,  and  then 
the  old  Saxons,  and  old  Komans,  and  Greeks,  but  we  perceive  David  and  Solomon, 
and  all  their  grand  associates,  living,  and  toiling,  and  dying  for  you  and  me — 
standing  with  stout  hearts  and  bleeding  hands  between  the  low  idolatry  of  primi- 
tive man  and  the  civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century.  David  and  Solomon 
were  preludes  to  the  blessed  Saviour.  Faltering  in  some  of  their  accents,  with 
imperfect  music,  indeed,  they  sang  a  hymn  that  carried  the  world  sweetly  along 
toward  the  grand  melody  that  was  soon  to  appear  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  in  the  divine  chants  of  the  children  of  Jesus  Christ. 


SALVATION   AND   MORALITY. 


Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness ;  for  they  shall  be  filled.    Mat- 
thew V  :  b. 

The  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  may  be  offered  as  the  text  and  warrant  of  the 
discourse  this  morning,  and  from  the  text  you  may  easily  conclude  that  the  subject 
of  remark  will  be  Salvation  and  Morality. 

It  is  so  difficult  to  make  the  discriminations  demanded  by  professional  theo- 
logians, descended  often  from  dark  and  narrow  periods,  that  we  often  feel  like 
abandoning  forever,  not  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  but  the  hope  of  saying  words  that 
shall  please  or  profit  minds  that  belong  to  the  exact  and  exacting  class  in  theology. 
In  our  own  denomination  there  are  so  many  always  ready  to  complain  that  "he 
preaches  a  religion  of  morality,  he  ignores  the  work  of  Christ,"  that  one  may  well 
hesitate  between  an  utterance  that  brings  complaint  and  a  silence  that  secures 
peace.  "We  all  love  peace.  It  is  the  natural  wish  of  most  hearts  that  their  life 
shall  be  made  up  of  halcyon  days,  days  when  no  wind  ru£3es  the  waters,  and  when 
the  sun  pours  upon  them  in  full  beauty  and  warmth.  To  gratify  this  wish,  there 
is  constant  temptation  to  speak  only  such  words  as  will  blend  with  the  past,  and 
not  jar  its  peaceful  sleep.  In  face  of  this  temptation,  we  must  confess  that  it  does 
seem  high  time  something  were  said  about  a  religion  of  morality,  or  if  the  terms 
be  better  —  salvation  and  good  works. 

We  must  premise  by  saying  that,  in  our  opinion,  exactness  is  impossible  in 
theology.  It  seems  wholly  beyond  human  skill  to  define  faith  and  charity  and 
salvation  with  a  material  exactness.  There  are  instruments  by  which  a  measure- 
ment of  one  millionth  of  an  inch  may  be  readily  made,  but  the  moment  you  get 
away  from  material  world,  this  instrument  is  powerless,  and  there  seems  none  to 
take  its  place.  In  this  poverty  of  instrumentation,  it  appears  we  shall  never  be 
able  to  tell  the  world  just  what  faith  is,  just  what  salvation  is,  just  what  the  office 
of  the  Saviour  is,  and  just  what  that  of  man's  will  and  of  the  Divine  Spirit  is. 

Outside  of  theology,  men  have  never  been  able  to  determine  just  what  litera- 
ture is,  what  poetry  is,  what  eloquence  is,  what  the  motive  of  virtue  may  be,  what 
is  the  exact  value  of  democracy,  or  pleasure,  or  wealth,  or  education.  Palcy  con- 
tends that  the  greatest  happiness  is  the  foundation  of  morals.  Victor  Cousin  says, 
"Morals  is  its  own  foundation.     We  do  a  right  thing  because  it  is  right." 

It  would  be  wonderful  if  thinking  men,  by  simply  passing  over  into  the  field 
of  theology,  should  find  a  realm  full  of  exactness,  and  oflFering  the  most  perfect 
definitions  to  any  one  in  the  least  partial  to  such  pursuits.  How  is  it  that  the 
words,  literature,  eloquence,  poetry,  civilization,  right,  are  so  reluctant  to  accept 
of  rigid  analysis,  and  that  theology  is  so  willing  to  lie  down  under  the  knife  of  the 
demonstrators  of  moral  anatomy  ?  How  comes  it  to  pass  that  the  question  "What 
is  liberty?"  or  "What  is  civilization?"  will  always  refuse  the  world  a  precise  an- 
swer, and  the  question  "What  is  salvation?"  may  be  answered  in  a  moment  by 
the  nearest  professor  in  the  schools  of  the  church  ?    We  recall  now  the  anecdote 


SALVATION  AND  MORALITY.  57 

of  science,  by  which  some  savan  attempted  to  entrap  Franklin,  or  Columbus,  or 
Pythagoras.  "How  comes  it  to  pass,"  inquired  Science,  "that  if  a  cup  be  filled  to 
the  brim,  and  then  many  fishes  be  put  gently  into  the  cup,  the  water  shall  not 
overflow?  Instead  of  explaining  the  phenomenon,  the  ideal  Franklin  or  Pytha- 
goras tried  the  experiment,  and  the  water  did  overflow. 

Thus  is  our  theological  world.  The  question  "How  comes  it  to  pass  that  sal- 
vation may  be  so  exactly  defined?"  is  to  be  answered,  "It  does  not  come  to  pass  at 
all.  The  glass  does  overflow."  The  definition,  when  exact,  is  so  far  false  ;  for  in 
order  perfectly  to  define  a  saved  soul,  it  would  be  necessary  for  man  to  read  the 
judgment  of  God,  and  to  perceive  all  that  in  the  last  day  will  be  counted  in  or 
counted  out  in  the  solemn  estimate.  As  it  will  be  the  office  of  God  only  to  assign 
places  to  the  spirits  called  away  from  this  life,  with  Him  must  rest  the  detailed 
facts  upon  which  the  sphere  of  the  soul  shall  be  prescribed  for  the  vast  hereafter. 
Hence,  the  Infinite  One  only  knows  the  full  import  of  the  word  salvation.  Knows 
its  essentials,  its  limitations  ;  He  only  knows  exactly  what  hearts  will  ascend  from 
the  scenes  of  earth  up  to  a  supreme  bliss. 

One  of  our  hymns  says  with  truth. 

There  is  a  time,  we  know  not  when, 
A  point,  we  know  not  where. 
That  marks  the  destiny  of  men 
For  glory  or  despair. 

It  is  a  true  thought,  but  I  would  not  limit  the  mystery  by  the  idea  of  time  and 
place  only,  but  also  by  the  quantity  and  quality  of  religion  in  the  heart.  There  is 
no  measurement  by  which  man  can  determine  just  the  soul  that  shall  receive  the 
smile  seen  in  the  words,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,"  just  the  soul  that 
shall  tremble  at  the  sentence,  "Depart  from  me  ye  accursed." 

Thus  interpreting  the  hymn,  it  becomes  to  my  heart  powerful  and  thrilling  — 

There  is  a.  line,  by  us  unseen. 
That  crosses  every  path, 
The  hidden  boundary  between 
God's  patience  and  His  wrath. 

Oh,  where  is  this  mysterious  bourn 
By  which  our  path  is  crossed  ; 
Beyond  which  God  himself  hath  sworn 
That  he  who  goes  is  lost  ? 

In  this  shadow  realm  we  would  not  wish  to  throw  down  the  exact  response 
that  "he  that  believes"  shall  safely  pass  the  mysterious  bourn  ;  for  faith  is  such  a 
broad,  indefinable  word  that  to  substitute  it  for  the  term  salvation,  would  be  to 
leave  us  still  in  the  air  obscure.  "Faith  in  Christ,"  would  be  a  phrase  still  inde- 
finite, for  not  only  has  faith  many  forms,  but  many  forms  also  attach  to  the  person 
of  Christ.  He  was  a  sacrifice,  but  sacrifice  has  many  significations.  He  was  an 
example.  He  was  a  mediator.  He  was  an  unfolding  of  the  divine  image.  Faith 
in  Christ  is  a  phrase  which  is  at  once  seen  to  be  made  of  words  that  are  like  the 
bits  of  colored  glass  in  the  kaleidoscope,  forming  many  pictures  and  all  very  beau- 
tiful. 

The  faith  of  a  little  child  in  Christ,  would  difl'er  essentially  from  the  faith  in 
Jesus  of  a  person  come  to  education  and  deeper  thought.  In  the  child's  estimate 
there  could  enter  no  analysis  of  the  Saviour  in  the  theological  sense  of  the  term. 
His  offices  of  atoning  lamb,  of  example,  of  image  of  God,  would  all  be  crowded  out 
of  the  young  heart  by  the  enthusiastic  reception  of  Christ  as  a  loving,  glorified, 
heavenly  friend.    If  to  such  a  child  what  is  called  salvation  could  come,  then  must 


68  SALVATION  AND  MORALITY. 

we  confess  that  salvation  must  elude  scholastic  definition,  and  make  of  itself  new 
pictures  according  to  the  hand  that  turns  the  magical  glass.  The  words  must  pos- 
sess an  elasticity  greatei*  than  will  be  admitted  by  the  schools  founded  to  promulge 
an  exact  idea. 

Now,  this  refusal  of  salvation  to  be  defined  in  language  rigidly  exact  and 
sharp,  ought  to  make  us  all  very  unwilling  to  separate  it  in  any  way  from  good 
works.  There  is  such  a  growing  together  of  these  two  ideas  in  the  whole  New 
Testament  that  any  separation  of  them  seems  an  act  of  ignorance  or  vandalism 
toward  the  life  and  history  of  Christ.  The  entire  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  is  a 
union  of  morals  and  salvation.  It  is  the  most  careful  unfolding  of  a  religion  of 
morality  that  was  ever  uttered  or  read  upon  earth.  From  its  outburst,  in  which 
heaven  is  assigned  to  the  poor  in  spirit  and  pure  in  heart,  to  its  last  verse,  where 
doing  good  works  is  the  foundation  of  rock,  upon  v/hich  every  man's  hope  should 
be  built,  the  divine  discourse  marches  along  to  the  key-note  of  morality. 

There  is  no  evading  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  in  all  the  days  and  hours 
of  Christ's  life  upon  the  earth,  the  doctrine  of  good  works  was  the  cardinal  idea  in 
every  speech,  and  even  in  the  most  solemn  prayer  of  Gethsemane.  Into  the  brief, 
model  prayer,  into  which  we  may  suppose  this  divine  intelligence  gathered  up  the 
most  useful  petitions,  he  taught  mankind,  that  to  forgive  and  be  forgiven,  to  be 
delivered  from  temptation  and  evil,  were  the  blessings  needed  by  the  soul,  and 
hence,  the  essence  of  its  salvation. 

Between  us  and  a  salvation,  the  teachings  of  Christ  about  an  upright  life, 
stand  with  such  a  broad  depth  and  sublime  height,  that  it  would  seem  like  pre- 
sumption and  egotism  in  man  to  announce  for  the  soul  a  safety  in  which  good 
works  should  perform  no  prominent  part.  If  what  is  called  in  exact  theology, 
"faith,"  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  salvation,  it  is  almost  wonderful  that  the 
great  Captain  of  our  salvation,  instead  of  setting  forth  this  idea  in  His  earthly 
discourses,  in  almost  every  case  gave  the  impulse  and  sanction  of  His  career  to 
the  doctrine  of  an  upright,  religious  life.  With  the  words  of  Jesus  before  us,  far 
be  it  from  us  ever  to  utter  a  word  that  would  seem  to  give  hope  of  heaven  to  a 
soul  not  building  up  a  personal  righteousness. 

The  alarm  expressed  by  many  pulpits,  that  many  are  relying  too  much  upon  a 
life  of  morality,  seems  to  jar  at  once  with  all  the  words  of  the  Saviour,  and  with 
the  events  of  the  sad  times  in  which  our  country  lives. 

In  this  Credit  Mobilier  phenomenon,  I  see  no  tendency  on  the  part  of  public 
men  to  base  their  soul's  salvation  on  good  works.  That  list  of  names  that  is  at  the 
same  time  associated  with  the  church  and  with  the  acceptance  of  bribes,  does  not 
seem  in  the  least  injured  by  any  reliance  upon  good  works  for  salvation.  Their 
hope  of  heaven  must  be  based  upon  faith  alone.  The  righteousness  they  dream  of 
must  be  wholly  an  imputed  righteousness.  In  presence  of  Sin,  bursting  forth  in 
high  and  low  places,  like  as  plague  issuing  from  the  plains  of  India ;  Sin,  with  one 
hand  full  of  bribes,  the  other  dripping  in  blood,  we  should  tremble,  as  a  servant  of 
Christ,  to  utter  one  word  that  would  warn  mankind  against  placing  too  high  an 
estimate  upon  the  value  of  a  sinless  life.  Upon  all  the  horizon  we  cannot  behold 
any  encroachment  of  this  evil.  The  only  persons  visibly  wedded  to  the  moral  life^ 
are  certain  followers  of  William  Penn,  and  in  the  group  of  bribe-holders,  between 
Kansas  and  the  Atlantic,  no  one  of  these  "mere  moralists"  seems  visible.  Caution 
against  salvation  by  good  works  would,  therefore,  seem  premature.  With  the 
Catholics  buying  righteousness  with  a  price,  so  many  pardons  for  a  sinful  soul, 
and  with  many  Protestants,  warned  against  placing  confidence  in  anything  but 


SALVATION  AND  MORALITY.  59 

faith,  the  time  for  being  alarmed  at  any  over-development  of  Quaker  morality, 
appears  not  yet  to  have  come. 

Standing  amid  the  scenes  that  surround  us  all  to-day,  if  there  be  any  connec- 
tion spoken  of  in  the  Bible  as  existing  between  a  man's  morals  and  his  destiny,  this 
would  seem  like  the  year  and  our  country  the  place,  in  which  all  such  relationships 
should  be  brought  out  in  all  the  theological  schools  and  rostrums  in  the  land. 
There  has  never  been  a  time  when  the  morality  of  the  Quakers  could  be  so  well 
endured.  Would  that  there  might  be,  in  all  the  schools  of  the  land,  a  Quaker  pro- 
fessorship of  honesty  endowed  along  with  the  chair  of  saving  faith.  Unable  as  we 
all  may  be  to  see  what  influence  upon  heaven  a  salvation  by  help  of  good  works 
might  exert,  whether  it  would  leave  that  blessed  realm  to  be  a  solitude,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  actual  human  righteousness  would  be  very  valuable  to  this  star 
and  this  generation. 

If  Christ  by  His  death  wrought  out  a  salvation  for  man,  man's  heart  must  be 
the  prize  bought  with  the  sacred  life  and  death.  There  is  no  salvation  for  a  sinful 
soul  except  a  pure  life.  Hence,  if  Christ  effectually  assists  man  to  this  pure  soul, 
He  is  man's  Saviour,  and  the  pure  soul  is  the  salvation.  If  good  works  are  the 
salvation,  Christ  is  still  the  Saviour.  Hence,  salvation  by  good  works  and  salvation 
by  Jesus  the  Kedeemer  are  so  inseparably  blended  that  any  effort  to  separate,  must 
result  in  an  insult  to  the  Cross  in  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
on  the  other.  It  cannot  be  that  Christ  would  save  a  race  in  their  sins,  but  from 
their  sins,  and  hence,  the  flight  from  sin  is  always  a  flight  to  the  bosom  of  God. 
This  is  therefore  the  essence  and  soul  of  Christianity,  this  upward  flight. 

If  to  us,  lost  in  a  wilderness,  without  a  sun,  nor  a  star,  nor  a  path  to  guide, 
there  comes  a  benevolent  hermit,  a  dear  Mentor,  and  leads  us  to  the  right  path, 
and  sets  our  faces  homeward,  he  is  at  once  our  saviour  ;  but  no  perfect  salvation 
will  come  from  to  our  going  that  path.  Our  "going"  and  the  Mentor  combine  in 
the  escape,  and  yet  he  lives  in  memory  as  the  kind  saviour  of  our  bewildered 
hearts. 

Thus  Christ  may  be  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  and  yet  leave  our  morality  as  the 
final  embodiment  of  His  salvation.  All  the  work  of  Christ  contained  in  the  word 
Calvary,  or  atonement,  is  only  the  objective  part  of  the  soul's  rescue,  whereas, 
man's  own  personal  righteousness  is  the  subjective  salvation,  the  thing  for  which 
the  other  exists.     Good  works  are  the  explanation  of  Calvary. 

The  words  and  life  of  Christ  show  that  what  He  most  desired,  was  the  spiritual 
perfection  of  His  children.  "Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect," was  the  ruling  wish  of  His  heart.  All  His  eloquence  was  aimed  at,  not 
simply  acts  of  sin,  but  even  sinful  thought.  In  the  transcendent  light  of  His 
morals,  the  Ten  Commandments  faded  like  a  snow-drop  upon  the  bosom  of  ocean. 
The  heaven  of  Jesus  was  both  a  purity  and  a  place,  and  hence,  the  final  analysis  of 
salvation  will  show  us  a  sinless  soul,  at  one  with  Christ,  as  He  and  the  Father 
are  one. 

There  is  no  conflict,  perhaps,  between  Paul  and  the  Saviour.  I  use  the  word 
"perhaps"  only  as  a  further  confession  of  the  impossibility  of  determining  with 
scientific  exactness  the  whole  of  Paul's  thought  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  whole  of 
the  Saviour's  thought  on  the  other.  Assuming  inspiration,  there  of  course  is  no 
conflict.  But  not  thus  begging  the  question  and  appealing  only  to  rationalism, 
there  seems  no  discord  in  the  two  strains  of  music.  Paul  unfolds  salvation  from 
without.  He  tells  what  is  necessary  outside  of  man.  Hence  Calvary  and  law  and 
imputation  and  satisfaction  come  upon  his  horizon  at  all  hours.  There  the  Jewish 
altar  is  transformed  into  a  cross.     The  first  Adam  and  second  Adam  meet.     The 


60  SALVATION  AND  MORALITY. 

past  sins  of  humanity  are  gathered  up  mountain  high,  and  a  price  is  to  be  paid  for 
them,  paid  in  blood  and  death.  While  these  scenes  of  objective  salvation  are 
pictured  in  intense  colors  upon  the  sky  of  the  saint,  the  scenes  of  the  subjective 
fulvation  are  passing  along  through  the  mind  of  the  Saviour  —  souls  full  of  virtue, 
full  of  brotherly  love,  souls  from  which  even  evil  thoughts  have  been  banished 
forever.  Paul  is  busy  with  the  paths  to  a  destiny ;  Christ  with  the  beautiful 
destiny  itself.  There  is  no  necessary  conflict,  but  Christ  remains  as  always  every- 
where the  greater.  He  never  halts  in  any  vestibule,  or  sits  down  upon  a  confine. 
He  passes  into  the  holy  places  of  the  soul  and  utters  the  final  wisdom  and  prayer 
and  destiny  of  the  poor  mortals  waiting  for  His  words. 

In  this  salvation  which  hath  two  parts,  the  way  and  the  going  in  that  way, 
the  hand  is  rash  indeed  that  would  separate  the  human  character  from  the  salvation. 
In  order  to  do  this  it  is  not  only  necessary  to  abandon  all  the  Gospels  of  Christ, 
but  it  is  necessary  also  to  misunderstand  Paul  and  torture  him  upon  the  rack  of  a 
system.  In  a  world  where  the  absence  of  integrity,  the  absence  of  a  righteousness 
is  so  remarkable  as  to  fill  society  with  alarm  by  day  and  by  night,  and  in  an  era, 
too,  where  what  is  called  salvation  by  faith  alone  has  been  crowded  forward  with 
wonderful  ability  and  success,  as  to  acceptance,  it  seems  high  time  the  scholastic 
meaning  of  salvation  where  made  to  expand  until  it  should  receive  into  its  polluted 
heart  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  morals  of  Jesus.  The  faith  demanded  by 
this  sinful  race  is  one  that  will  not  simply  look  upon  a  price  for  its  sins,  but  upon 
a  career  of  individual  virtue,  a  faith  that  believes  in  Christ,  not  only  upon  Calvary, 
but  in  the  Gospels,  Christ  not  only  in  Mosaic  types,  but  Christ  in  the  spotless 
purity  recorded  by  Matthew  and  St.  John.  A  religion  is  needed  that  will  not 
dare  tell  mankind  that  works  are  of  no  significance,  that  will  not  cast  contempt 
upon  any  righteousness  except  an  imputed  one,  a  religion  that  will  not  dare  spurn 
the  entire  life  and  words  of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake.  This  is  not  a 
salvation  without  Christ.  The  difSculty  will  be  found  to  be  that  it  has  too  much 
of  Christ  in  it.  To  the  teachings  of  Calvin  and  Luther  it  adds  the  teachings  of  the 
Saviour  as  an  important  supplement. 

The  divine  Jesus  with  His  morality,  with  His  curse  upon  one  who  even  called 
his  brother  Raca,  with  this  prayer  "Be  ye  perfect,"  with  His  benediction  for  him 
who  did  the  last  commandment  and  taught  men  so,  with  His  whole  career  full 
of  man's  subjective  salvation,  is  an  object  too  vast  to  be  swept  from  the  Christian 
sky  by  the  besom  of  any  school,  past  or  to  come.  Be  you  anywhere,  my  friend,  in 
the  journey  of  life;  in  youth,  or  middle  life,  or  old  age,  do  not  suffer  any  voice  to 
confuse  your  heart  as  to  the  need  of  a  personal  obedience  rendered  the  teachings  of 
the  Saviour.  The  precise  meaning  of  salvation  may  elude  your  power  of  definition. 
You  may  not  be  able  to  find  that  line  that  crosses  every  path — 

"  The  hidden  boundary  between 
God's  patience  and  Kis  wrath," 

but  whatever  darkness  may  gather  around  you,  admit  the  obscure  definitions  of 
men,  there  will  always  be  in  the  imitation  of  Jesus  Christ  a  place  where  no  shadow 
can  come.  A  religion  that  will  make  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  play  a  second 
part  in  your  earthly  career,  comes  it  under  any  name,  Calvinist,  Methodist, 
Baptist  or  Catholic,  that  religion  decline,  or  abandon  so  far,  and  draw  nearer  to 
Him  who  knew  better  than  all  the  schools,  wherein  lies  the  best  destiny  of  the  soul. 
All  through  the  life  of  Christ  the  music  of  heavens  sounded  to  the  pure  in 
heart,  and  an  awful  thunder  rolled  in  all  the  sky,  over  the  spirit  that  sinned  in 
deed  and  in  thought ;  and  when  a  generation  after  the  Saviour's  death,  the 
heavens  opened  to  the  vision  of  St.  John,  and  this  divine  Being  stood  a  radiant 


SALVATION  AND  MORALITY.  61 

star  on  the  border  of  earth,  there  came  the  same  music  again  for  the  virtuous, 
the  same  thunder  in  the  futurity  of  the  wicked,  "Blessed  are  they  that  do  His 
commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  may  enter  in 
through  the  gates  of  the  city  ;  for  without  are  dogs  and  sorcerei's  and  murderers 
and  idolaters  and  whosoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie."  Here  the  morals  of 
Jesus  return  to  us  in  awful  significance.  Let  us  not  add  to  nor  take  away  from 
the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book. 

We  have  come  to  evil  days — days  when  public  men  who  stand  forth  as 
members  of  the  Christian  church,  even  of  the  churches  called  orthodox,  hesitate 
not  to  carry  in  the  same  heart  a  salvation  by  faith  and  a  willingness  to  receive 
bribes.  Among  the  public  men  now  changed  with  glaring  dishonor  there  may  be 
some  who  can  establish  innocence,  but  the  awful  fact  is  even  here  confessed,  that 
there  are  thousands  of  Christians  who  are  getting  their  salvation  by  faith  and 
their  fortunes  by  rascality.  If  the  parties  could  be  found  who  have  in  the  past 
brought  about  this  divorcement  between  salvation  and  good  w6rks,  they  should  be 
urged  to  come  forward  and  confess  their  sin  before  the  nineteenth  century,  so 
injured  in  all  the  sacred  places  of  its  soul.  In  the  name  of  injured  virtue,  in  the 
name  of  public  calamity,  come  and  coming,  they  should  read  and  preach,  not  only 
the  grand  philosophy  of  Paul,  but  the  still  grander  morals  of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  a  Christianity  that  will  save  the  world.  It  has  not  only  a  faith,  but 
it  has  a  morality  as  essential  as  its  faith.  It  not  only  says  "Believe  and  be  saved," 
but  it  assigns  damnation  to  him  who  leads  a  wicked  life.  There  is  a  Christianity 
that  will  not  only  fill  heaven  with  saints,  but  earth  with  good  citizens.  In  it 
Paul  and  Christ  are  not  rudely  separated,  and  the  human  placed  above  the  divine, 
but  the  morals  of  the  Gospels  come  back  to  mankind,  and  the  anxiety  for  faith  is 
no  greater  than  the  hungering  after  righteousness. 

In  the  pictures  and  images  of  the  Cross  seen  in  all  homes  in  this  era  of 
tenderer  sentiment,  there  is  often  to  be  seen  a  garland  of  flowers,  surrounding  the 
cruel  wood  in  their  loving  imbrace.  Emblems  of  life  and  death  indeed !  but  may 
they  be  to  us  always,  emblems  of  the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount,  inwreathing  the 
atonement,  forming  a  part  of  the  indefinable  salvation — inseparable.  The  Christ 
that  gave  the  world  the  Cross,  wove  also  the  garland  of  morality  that  complete* 
its  adaption  to  the  wants  of  man. 


THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY. 


"  For  My  yoke  is  easy  and  My  burden  is  light." — Matthew  xi,  30. 

Three  facts  combine  to  place  this  Sunday  beyond  the  reach  of  the  pulpit's 
prose.  We  would  do  well  to  surrender  the  occasion  to  song  and  flowers  and  the 
full  heart's  meditation.  It  is  a  Sunday  in  springtime  ;  it  is  Sunday  of  the  holy 
communion,  and  it  is  Easter  Sunday.  May  your  hearts  all  find  in  their  own  depths 
a  measurement  of  the  occasion  which  words  cannot  express.  "What  help  you  may 
not  gather  from  the  pulpit's  formal  words  to-day,  you  may  find  in  the  flowers  that 
wreathe  the  altar  and  in  the  spiritual  associations  of  the  hour.  "What  remarks  you 
are  invited  to  hear  shall  be  in  some  way  suggested  by  the  presence  and  character 
of  the  Easter  day. 

It  is  only  conjecture  that  has  located  this  sacred  anniversary  upon  the  border 
of  spring.  Many  of  those  details  which  are  carefully  reported  in  an  age  of  print- 
ing, and  in  an  age  of  such  restless  inquiry  as  the  art  of  printing  has  developed, 
wholly  escaped  record  and  remembrance  in  the  far-off  times  of  the  Testament. 
The  history  of  modern  events  is  gathered  by  hundreds  of  busy  hands,  and  hundreds 
of  presses  multiply  the  exact  report,  so  that  the  day  that  witnesses  the  end  of  a 
war,  or  the  death  of  a  great  individual,  places  in  the  hand  of  every  citizen  a  history 
of  the  great  war  or  the  great  life.  History,  worthy  in  a  high  sense  of  the  name, 
begins  with  the  art  of  printing.  All  history,  up  to  the  coming  of  that  "art  preserv- 
ative of  all  arts,"  is  only  a  poor  outline  of  a  world,  instead  of  a  full-faced  picture 
of  the  great  subject.  It  is  comforting  to  the  Christian,  however,  to  feel  that  the 
life  of  his  Master  is  full  beyond  the  custom  of  profane  biography,  and  in  detail  of 
the  life  and  thoughts  and  deeds  and  death,  surpasses  the  chronicles  the  world  pos- 
sesses as  to  any  great  character  of  the  far  past,  not  excepting  such  a  philosopher  as 
Plato,  or  such  an  emperor  as  Qtesar.  The  life  of  Christ  is  remarkable  for  the  num- 
ber of  its  witnesses,  and  for  the  credibility  they  merit  by  their  honesty  and  oppor- 
tunity. But  they  gave  us  no  birthday  nor  deathday  of  their  Master,  and  after  the 
old,  half-civilized  generations  in  the  third  century  had  absolutely  fought  battles 
over  difi'erent  opinions  about  the  time  of  the  resurrection,  the  council  of  Nice 
established  a  day  by  decree,  and  since  that  date  the  Christian  Church  has,  so  far  as 
it  has  regarded  the  event  at  all,  celebrated  the  morning  which  our  generation  is 
learning  to  love  more  and  more  deeply. 

Aside  from  the  exact  day,  it  is  quite  probable  that  this  event  of  sorrow  and  joy 
occurred  in  the  spring  months,  for  as  the  Christian  Church  followed  closely  with 
its  life  the  event  of  the  cross,  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  oldest  persons  in  the 
first  century  should  have  possessed  incorrect  data  regarding  the  season  of  the  year 
when  their  Lord  was  crucified,  and  that  they  should  have  located  in  the  spring  an 
event  so  significant  that  occurred  in  the  late  harvest  or  midwinter.  It  seems  quite 
certain  that  the  Lord  thus  died  and  arose  in  the  spring  time,  and  thus  by  design, 


THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY.  63 

for  there  is  not  much  of  accident  in  the  world,  associated  His  life  and  His  religion 
with  the  realm  of  flowers  and  beauty  and  hope.  Spring  is  the  peculiar  property 
of  hope.  We  all,  from  the  young  child  to  the  most  venerable  father  of  three  score 
and  ten  years,  feel  that  when  the  long  winter  relents  and  the  wind  has  begun  to 
blow  softly  upon  the  cheek,  a  new  world  is  about  to  come,  and  each  morning  bird 
song  seems  a  herald  declaring  a  new  joy  and  new  existence  to  the  heart.  There  are 
many  wonderful  harmonies  between  the  God  of  nature  and  the  God  of  the  soul. 
They  are  so  numerous  that  the  spirit  of  man  can  express  all  its  varying  conditions 
by  asking  us  to  look  upon  the  world  of  material.  If  unhappy,  it  declares  its  sky 
to  be  clouded  ;  if  happy,  its  sky  to  be  bright ;  if  young,  it  appeals  to  springtime 
as  its  emblem  ;  if  beyond  manhood  and  forsaken,  it  cries, 

"  My  name  is  in  the  yellow  leaf. 

The  flowers  and  fruits  of  love  are  gone ; 
The  worm,  the  canker,  and  the  grief 
Are  mine  alone." 

Thus  there  are  no  shadings  in  human  experience  which  may  not  behold  their 
image  in  the  great  temple  of  nature  in  which  man  lives  and  dies.  The  majority  of 
mortals  come  upon  death  in  the  night  hours,  as  though  the  great  evening  shadow 
which  wraps  in  its  gloom  wood  and  field,  and  even  the  loved  home  where  the  sick 
one  lies,  were  designed  of  God  to  be  an  accompaniment  to  the  shadow  about  to 
come  to  the  spirit.  If,  therefore,  the  God  of  nature  and  the  God  of  the  heart  are 
seen  to  move  along  in  such  parallel  lines,  why  may  we  not  suppose  that  if  a  Savior 
was  to  come  and  rise  from  the  tomb  in  presence  of  a  world,  that  the  infinite  wis- 
dom would  ask  the  great  springtime  to  open  her  flower  beds  for  that  tomb  of  new 
life  and  hope.  It  is  only  one  of  a  thousand  harmonies  if  that  season  which  casts 
its  best  sunshine  and  happiness  upon  the  shores  of  earth,  is  that  one  which  was 
asked  to  cast  the  Son  of  Man  upon  the  shores  of  immortality. 

When  the  Easter  Sunday  became  established  it  was  called  dominica  gaiidii — 
"the  joyful  Sunday," — and  thus  for  fifteen  hundred  years  this  day  has  journeyed 
along  to  receive  not  the  oflferings  of  dust  and  ashes,  not  the  worship  of  sighing  and 
despair,  but  the  off'erings  of  the  sweetest  bloom  and  the  worship  of  gratitude  and 
hope.  A  large  part  of  the  Protestant  world  has  faithfully  closed  its  eyes  to  the 
reality  and  value  of  this  anniversary  in  Christian  history,  and  thus  has  robbed 
religion  of  one  of  its  beautiful  robes,  leaving  it  more  and  more  dependent  upon  a 
costume  of  nothing  but  sackcloth.  The  reason  of  this  past  neglect  is  manifold. 
Protestantism  in  its  puritan  and  dissenting  divisions  was  a  reaction  against  a 
service  of  an  extremely  material  character.  The  spiritual  seemed  forgotten,  and 
the  outward  symbols  to  have  taken  the  place  of  an  "inner  life."  The  pulpit  that 
had  been  set  up  in  early  years  as  a  teacher  of  t*uth,  had  been  crowded  almost  out 
of  existence  by  a  great  stage  filled  with  bishops,  priests,  and  acolytes,  where  elo- 
quence seemed  deposed  by  pageantry.  Against  a  religion  which  seemed  an  extra- 
vagant development  of  the  spectacular,  Presbyterianism,  and  Methodism,  and 
Congregationalism,  and  Quakerism,  were  a  form  of  revolt,  for  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  creed  of  these  new  sects  was  not  such  a  full  departure  from  Episcopacy  or 
Komanism  as  was  the  genius  of  their  new  worship,  its  spirituality  and  simplicity. 
Having  set  forth  in  a  full  dislike  of  the  state  Churches,  and  particularly  of  the 
Koman  Church,  these  independent  sects  feared  and  despised  everything  Roman, 
and  hence  saw  the  hand  of  Satan  not  only  in  the  "confessional"  and  in  the  "infal- 
libility," but  also  in  a  Church  organ  and  in  Easter  happiness, 

A  second  reason  for  this  neglect  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  these  dissenting 
sects  arose  further  north  than  Palestine  and  Italy  and  France,  and  amid  hardships 


64  THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY. 

of  government,  of  sky,  of  race,  and  hence  amid  severity  of  thought;  hence  religion 
omitted  much  that  was  beautiful  and  gentle,  and  dealt  greatly  in  the  logical 
and  the  most  practical;  and  if  any  further  reflection  is  needed  to  account  for  the 
neglect  which  this  day  receives  in  many  puritan  branches  of  the  Church,  we  may 
remember  that  the  Free  sects  have  been  compelled  to  fight  their  whole  way  along 
through  history,  and  hence  could  not  accomplish  much  with  a  sword  in  one  hand 
and  Easter  flowers  in  the  other.     The  poetry  of  religion  died  in  the  long  conflict. 

In  the  joy  and  gratitude  of  this  day,  our  hearts  should  not  fail  to  be  thankful 
that  the  world  has  so  advanced  in  the  enlightenment  which  destroys  prejudice, 
and  in  the  deeper  study  of  religion,  and  in  the  development  of  a  Christian  brother- 
hood, that  now  at  last  this  day  comes  back  to  our  sanctuary  and  excites  no  ill 
will,  no  past  bitter  memory  of  pope  or  bishop,  but  only  remembrance  of  the  open 
tomb  of  Arimathea.  The  Christian  heart  universal  is  so  emptied  of  old  animosity 
and  narrowness  that  the  Protestant  Churches  rejoice,  I  believe,  to  join  this  day 
with  the  Catholic  world  in  confessing  the  religious  worth  and  beauty  of  this 
occasion,  and  in  joining  with  them,  though  at  separate  altars,  in  this  worship  of 
joyfulness. 

In  coming  up  to  such  a  day  as  this,  we  have  not  encountered  a  kind  of  acci- 
dent of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  but  have  come  to  its  inmost  and  permanent  spirit. 
When  the  Divine  Author  of  religion  declares  that  "His  yoke  is  easy  and  His 
burden  light,"  we  may  accept  of  the  words  as  covering  all  the  days  of  this  pil- 
grimage. When  looked  at  from  the  stand-point  of  old  Jewish  law,  full  of  imper- 
fections, full  of  wrath,  and  too  narrow  either  for  life  or  death,  whose  confines 
were  a  single  nation,  and  whose  religion  was  an  external  offering  of  flocks,  and 
whose  great  emblem  was  a  Sinai  covered  with  thunderings  and  vivid  lightnings, 
Christ's  yoke,  with  its  perfection  of  reason  in  its  new  law,  and  with  its  redemp- 
tion on  the  cross,  and  with  its  forgiveness,  and  its  brotherhood  of  man  and  loving 
presence  of  God,  became  easy  and  His  burden  light. 

When  the  Testament  in  many  places  assures  us  that  whoever  would  follow 
Christ  must  deny  himself  and  take  up  the  cross,  it  would  seem  that  Christianity 
was  sent  forth  on  a  mission  of  sorrow,  but  much  of  that  language  was  directed  to 
those  immediate  times  when  to  follow  Christ  was  to  place  the  foot  in  a  path  which 
led  to  martyrdom.  It  was  necessary  for  a  St.  Paul  and  for  tens  of  thousands 
around  his  grave  to  turn  away  from  the  paths  of  earthly  happiness,  and  bidding 
farewell  to  friends,  to  look  death  calmly  in  the  face  as  the  fate  of  the  morrow  not 
far  away.  The  prayer  of  Milton  over  the  martyr  of  Piedmont  passes  beyond  his 
horizon  and  becomes  full  of  awful  solemnity  when  breathed  over  the  first  four 
centuries  after  our  Lord  : 

"Forget  not :  in  Thy  book  record  their  groans 
Who  were  Thy  sheep,  and  in  their  ancient  fold 
Slain  by  the  bloody  Piedmontese  that  rolled 
Mother  with  infant  down  the  rocks.    Their  moans 
The  vales  redoubled  to  the  hills  and  they  to  heayen. 
Their  martyr'd  blood  and  ashes  sow 
O'er  all  the  Italian  fields." 

In  view  of  these  dark  ages,  whose  fury  it  seems  was  not  wholly  to  die  away 
for  a  thousand  years,  Christ  handed  down  to  His  children  the  form  of  His  own 
cross  to  go  with  them,  the  emblem  of  many  a  sorrow  and  many  a  martyrdom. 
Thus  I  feel  that  many  of  the  half-melancholy  words  of  Christ  were  spoken  as 
against  the  persecutions  that  would  follow  and  did  exhaust  themselves  upon  that 


THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY.  65 

special  shore,  leaving  His  broadest  and  everlasting  declaration  to  be  that  of  our 
text:  "My  yoke  is  easy  and  My  burden  is  light."  Sorrows  may  come  here  and 
there,  to  this  or  that  period,  or  to  this  or  that  heart,  but  as  a  general  truth  embra- 
cing all  lands  and  all  humanity.  Christianity  is  the  most  abundant  fountain  o 
happiness  of  whose  waters  the  human  family  may  ever  drink.  If  there  is  any 
happiness  in  this  world  it  ought  to  be  found  in  the  obedience  of  such  morals  as 
are  found  in  the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount,  and  in  sucli  a  life  of  broad  love  and 
charitable  action  as  are  seen  in  the  life  of  Christ,  and  in  that  refuge  for  the  soul 
found  beneath  His  Cross,  and  in  that  hope  which  there  bursts  upon  the  vision 
beyond  the  open  tomb. 

If  I  should  declare  that  apart  from  the  fear  of  persecution  and  martyrdom 
there  is  no  cross  to  be  borne,  I  should  overlook  a  certain  self-denial  which  does 
indeed  belong  to  this  religion.  IJut  it  is  almost  worthy  of  contempt,  for  it  is  not 
a  denial  of  a  good  self  but  a  wicked  self.  We  are  not  asked  to  deny  self  of  any- 
thing that  belongs  to  the  broadest  and  highest  development  of  mind  and  heart,  but 
if  there  is  anything  low  and  satanic  in  our  nature,  we  are  invited  to  cut  off  that 
form  of  human  energy.  Self-denial  seems  to  be  a  denying  the  heart  the  privilege 
of  its  own  self-disgrace.  If  not  to  steal,  not  to  envy,  not  to  bear  false  witness,  not 
to  despise  the  poor,  nor  be  insensible  to  the  wants  of  one's  fellow-men,  are  a  self- 
denial,  then  Christianity  is  full  of  it ;  but  if  we  pass  by  a  depraved  or  unworthy 
nature  as  being  something  whose  gratifications  is  a  simple  disgrace,  and  if  we 
think  of  only  a  lofty  soul  and  the  highest  form  of  character,  Christianity  is  not  a 
self-denial,  but  a  self-love  and  self-gratification.  Much  of  the  asceticism  which 
lingers  in  the  Christian  philosophy  and  practice  has  been  gathered  up  from  half- 
civilized  ages,  all  through  v/hich  religion  advanced  mingled  with  the  horrid  ideas 
of  paganism.  As  the  Hindoos  try  to  please  their  gods  by  hook-swinging  and  by 
thrusting  hot  irons  through  the  flesh,  so  the  semi-Christian  times,  lingering  on  the 
borders  of  this  pagan  darkness,  have  had  their  saints  of  pillar  and  cave;  and  as 
the  children  of  Bengal  have  for  thousands  of  years,  run  forth  to  see  the  fakirs 
coming  into  the  village,  cutting  their  own  bodies  with  knives,  so  have  the  Christian 
villagers  in  Europe  followed  in  wonder  and  reverence  a  procession  of  flagelants 
marching  to  a  chorus  of  whips,  and  with  feet  sprinkled  with  blood.  Both  these 
scenes,  one  in  India  under  Vishnu,  the  other  in  Europe  under  Christ,  are  pictures 
of  the  same  human  heart  living  in  a  native  ignorance  which  was  still  bringing  to 
bear  upon  the  new  Gospel  a  folly  of  logic  and  of  soul  that  had  long  been  producing 
the  deformities  of  religion  along  the  Tiber  and  Nile  and  Ganges.  "Wherever  a 
Christian  has  starved  himself,  wherever  a  Christian  has  worn  a  girdle  of  thorns, 
wherever  a  Christian  mother  has  tried  to  love  her  children  less,  that  she  might 
love  her  God  more,  wherever  a  saint  has  withdrawn  from  the  bright  sunlight  that 
he  might  dwell  only  in  the  light  of  God,  wherever  any  heart  anywhere  has  felt 
that  by  self-imposed  suffering  it  might  gratify  God  the  more,  there  all  these  w^ell- 
meaning  ones  have  revealed  not  the  import  of  Christianity,  but  the  dark  shadow 
of  that  realm  beyond  Christ,  where  the  mother  drowns  her  infant  for  God's  sake 
and  where  strong  men  have  in  the  name  of  God  held  up  their  right  arm  till  it 
withered,  or  have  gazed  at  the  sun  till  they  became  blind  forever.  Many  an  age 
has  groaned  under  what  they  called  the  "Cross,"  which  instead  of  being  a  cross 
was  only  a  folly.  When  Mme.  Guyon  resolved  that  she  would  not  feel  sad  when 
her  children  should  die,  but  would  lay  them  in  the  grave  as  she  had  put  them  in 
the  cradle  at  night,  and  when  we  perceive  that  this  she  actually  did,  and  shed  no 
tear,  but  smiled  on  them  dead  as  she  had  smiled  on  them  living,  we  must  not  be 
betrayed  even  by  her  rank  and  culture  or  fortune  into  the  belief  that  she  was 


66  THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY. 

unveiling  any  of  the  mysteries  of  our  religion,  but  must  confess  that  her  great 
mind  and  heart  were  touched  by  that  shadow  of  infirmity  which  has  thrown  its 
dark  line  in  some  form  across  all  the  intellects  which  have  ever  lived,  however 
great  or  humble.  Every  soul  born  into  the  world  is  born  into  mistakes.  Be  the 
intellect  lofty  as  that  of  a  Demosthenes  or  a  Matthew  Hale,  be  the  genius  as  divine 
as  that  of  Dante  or  Shakespeare,  be  the  heart  as  sweet  as  that  of  Fenelon  or 
Cowper,  across  it  somewhere  will  fall  a  dark  line,  the  shadow  of  man's  frailty, 
reminding  us  that  there  is  none  good  but  God.  Escaping  from  this  influence  of 
innate  infirmity  and  of  surrounding  barbarism,  and  coming  up  face  to  face  before 
the  actual  religion  of  Christ,  we  are  bound  to  confess  that  its  yoke  is  easy  and  its 
burden  light.  The  escape  from  a  low  life  to  a  higher  one,  the  refuge  from  sin 
found  in  the  Kifted  Eock  and  in  forgiveness,  the  new  love  toward  all  mankind 
and  toward  God,  the  better  reading  of  life's  significance,  and  the  perpetual  looking 
to  heaven  from  amid  all  the  sorrows  of  this  shore,  should  not  be  confessed  a  cross 
for  bowed-down  shoulders,  but  rather  a  joyful  crown  for  the  temples. 

•There  is  one  consideration  which  tends  to  rob  Christianity  of  that  lightness  of 
heart  which  belongs  to  the  innocence  of  childhood  and  to  the  absolute  pleasure- 
seekers  of  mature  years.  It  has  not  so  loud  a  laugh,  nor  so  many  sunshiny  days. 
But  the  reason  of  this  is  so  vast  and  so  noble  that  one  might  well  accept  of  its 
sacrifice  of  merriment,  to  gain  instead  the  soberness  that  comes  from  so  honorable 
a  cause.  Let  the  human  mind  and  heart  espouse  any  truth  that  leads  to  a  deeper 
study  of  man,  a  philosophy  that  studies  the  wants  of  the  human  family  in  all  its 
races  and  ages  and  conditions,  a  philosophy  which  must  go  along  with  all  these 
years,  and  then  look  over  into  eternity,  a  philosophy  issuing  from  an  infinite  sym- 
pathy and  which  must  go  where  the  orphan  is  weeping  and  the  sick  dying,  and  this 
philosophy  will  be  one  which,  in  what  we  call  merriment,  can  be  surpassed  always 
by  the  childhood  which  knows  nothing,  or  by  the  empty  years  of  sin  and  fashion 
which  nothing  cares.  As  the  statesmen  who,  like  Cobden,  or  Bright,  or  Lincoln, 
espouse  the  destinies  of  the  multitude,  are  borne  away  from  the  butterfly  joy  which 
they  knew  in  childhood,  and  which  they  can  still  behold  along  the  fashionable 
avenues,  so  Christianity,  fully  accepted  by  the  soul,  brings  with  it  often  a  study 
of  mankind  and  a  longing  for  the  world's  welfare  which  sobers  the  waking  hours 
and  even  invades  with  its  anxiety  the  once  peaceful  and  sweet  world  of  dream. 

Compared,  however,  with  a  childish  life  or  a  sinful  life  or  an  empty  life, 
Christianity  is  not  in  our  century,  escaped  as  it  has  from  much  pagan  abnegation, 
and  centering  as  it  does  upon  an  era  of  love  and  happiness,  any  longer  a  bondage, 
but  its  yoke  is  easy  and  its  burden  light.  Its  cross  was  borne  by  its  Christ  that 
it  might  not  be  borne  by  His  children.  The  cross  weighed  down  His  body  and 
spirit  to  the  tomb,  but  to  His  children  it  is  worn  on  the  bosom,  an  ornament  of 
beauty  and  hope.     Once  stained  with  blood,  it  is  now  wreathed  with  flowers. 

Two  Sundays  in  the  year  are  now  dedicated  to  the  spirit  of  happiness.  The 
Protestant  Church  h"as  now  for  the  most  part  admitted  these  two  oases  into  a  broad 
desert,  and  all  that  remains  is  for  us  to  read  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  that  we  shall 
seek  to  make  these  two  "Sundays  of  joy,"  these  islands  in  the  sandy  plain  widen 
out  till  the  vision  of  waving  palm  trees  shall  always  lie  before  every  traveler  in  this 
lonely  march.  "When  modern  art  and  modern  ambition  had  traced  a  can^l  from  the 
Nile  to  the  Suez  station,  verdure  followed  the  waters  through  the  desert,  and  now 
trees  wave  in  blessing  where  for  ages  the  burning  sand  blistered  the  foot  and  filled 
the  travelers  heart  with  only  a  sense  of  desolation.  It  is  coming  to  pass,  and  it  will 


THE  JOYFUL  SUNDAY.  67 

come  to  be  confessed  more  fully  in  future  times,  that  Christianity  is  a  stream 
flowing  through  a  desert  world,  only  that  more  palm  trees  may  rise  up  and  flowers 
bloom  for  the  joy  of  the  multitude  that  move  to  and  fro  in  these  wide  plains 
of  life. 

Such  are  our  thoughts  for  the  day  when  the  cross  of  death  is  wreathed  with 
the  flowers  of  eternal  life.  In  presence  of  this  wreath  all  others  of  earth  fade. 
The  bride  wreathes  her  forehead  in  the  name  of  a  long  friendship,  but  her  beauty 
and  joy,  her  home,  would  all  become  dust  after  a  few  years,  as  perishable  as  the 
wreath  of  her  forehead,  were  it  not  for  the  hope  of  immortal  life  which  wafts  her 
and  all  she  loves  forward  to  a  world  of  unending  bliss.  So  the  wreathes  of  states- 
men and  philanthropists,  of  all  love  and  friendship,  look  to  the  great  resurrection 
beyond  these  narrow  confines  as  fulfillment  of  their  hopes  and  reward  of  their 
toils.  Hence  we  have  come  to-day  to  the  wreath  of  all  wreathes,  to  the  bloom 
that  causes  all  blossoming.  Oh,  blessed  Easter  flowers !  the  scattered  roses  of 
every  field  cast  their  color  and  perfume  down  before  your  more  sacred  import. 
As  the  sheaves  of  his  brethren  all  bowed  before  the  sheaf  of  Joseph,  in  the  old, 
beautiful  dream,  because  they  saw  that  his  hands  would  feed  the  hungry  in  far-oflF 
years,  when  their  own  grains  had  perished,  so  before  the  Easter  immortelles  all 
the  lilies  and  roses  of  a  wide  world  may  come  to  worship,  because,  gifted  with 
prophecy,  they  may  well  see  in  these  emblems  of  immortality  a  beauty  which  shall 
reappear  in  eternity  long  after  their  own  leaves  shall  have  been  scattered  and 
their  perfume  all  breathed  away  into  the  silent  night. 


THE  GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF  VICE. 


[  "It  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the  land  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah."    Matt,  x  :  rS- 

The  names  of  these  two  cities,  over  whose  ruins  the  Dead  sea  is  supposed  to 
roll  its  bitter  waves,  are  read  before  you  this  morning  as  words  that  may  remind 
you  that  the  present  is  not  the  only  age  of  vice,  but  that  great  sins  lie  back  of  our 
times.  I  announce  as  my  theme  "The  Decline  of  Vice."  The  discourse  before  you 
last  Sunday  closed  with  an  appeal  to  you  to  gird  up  your  strength  against  the  evils 
of  the  age  ;  but  that  we  may  all  possess  some  general,  truthful  view  of  the  work  on 
hand,  of  its  magnitude  and  desfair  or  hope,  it  seems  desirable  that  an  hour  should 
be  given  to  inquiry  as  to  the  present  attitude  of  human  depravity  compared  with 
the  long  yesterday.  This  inquiry  may  lead  us  along  two  paths,  the  one  leading 
through  the  a  priori  question,  What  should  be  the  result  of  the  increase  of  know- 
ledge ?  The  other  leading  through  the  actual  facts  with  the  question,  What  has 
been  the  history  of  sin  ?  The  relation  between  knowledge  and  virtue  is,  as  a  gen- 
eral truth,  the  relation  between  a  cause  and  an  effect.  While  no  one  will  contend 
that  knowledge  will  fully  regenerate  the  heart  and  make  a  saint  out  of  a  sinner, 
yet  the  tendency  of  information  is  to  raise  the  individual  to  a  higher  plane  of 
morality.  Our  penitentiaries,  and  also  our  observation,  teach  us  that  ignorance  is 
the  mother  of  vice.  Says  an  old  Greek,  "Better  to  be  unborn  than  untaught,  for 
ignorance  is  the  root  of  misfortune."  The  great  Robert  Hall  said,  "Ignorance 
gives  an  eternity  to  prejudice;  a  perpetuity  to  error."  The  majority  of  convicts  in 
the  dungeon  or  upon  the  scaffold  cannot  write,  but  use  that  fatal  emblem  called 
"his  mark."  All  through  the  Scriptures  virtue  is  represented  as  a  light,  and  sin 
as  a  darkness,  and  in  obedience  to  this  distinction,  Satan  is  the  prince  of  darkness 
and  Christ  the  light  of  the  world.  Every  motion  man  makes  is  along  the  line  of 
his  information,  it  being  the  great  pathmaker  for  him  in  the  wilderness,  his  pillar 
of  fire  and  cloud  in  all  his  long  journeying. 

If  you  find  an  Indian  planting  a  few  seeds  in  wild  Oregon,  or  setting  forth 
with  his  spear  to  kill  fish,  or  with  his  treacherous  arrow  to  attack  his  enemy,  he  is 
moving  along  the  lines  of  his  information,  and  he  will  use  all  his  light  about 
planting  his  maize  or  spearing  the  fish  or  waylaying  the  white  man.  Over  his 
dead  enemy  he  will  shed  no  tears,  for  he  knows  nothing  of  a  golden  rule,  and 
nothing  of  the  rights  of  man  or  the  sacredness  of  life.  All  moralists  or  casuists  so 
feel  the  causal  relation  between  ignorance  and  crime  that  they  hold  the  heathen 
world  to  be  responsible  for  not  having  sought  such  light  as  might  have  improved 
their  virtue,  thus  confessing  that  the  order  of  nature  is  "light"  and  then  "virtue." 
When  a  mind  like  that  of  William  Penn  or  llichard  Cobden  has  made  a  study  of 
man,  and  has  looked  into  the  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  it 
becomes  incapable  of  the  atrocities  which  give  actual  pleasure  to  the  untutored 
Modoc  of  the  West.  Penn  and  Cobden  are  rays  of  light  upon  the  heart,  emblems 
of  that  softening  of  soul  which  God's  great  truth  always  brings. 


THE   GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF  VICE.  69 

God's  moral  world  and  His  physical  world  being  covered  all  over  with  a  net- 
work of  laws  as  numerous  and  delicate  as  the  tenderest  threads  in  the  spider's  web, 
the  first  equipment  for  living  in  this  world  is  a  wide  information  as  to  these  laws 
of  body  and  mind  and  society  and  religion.  A  knowledge  of  these  is  the  sun 
which  must  turn  night  into  day  and  sleep  into  life. 

It  is  now  seen  that  under  the  increase  of  knowledge  in  the  medical  art,  the 
average  of  human  life  has  risen  and  is  now  ascending.  The  relation  of  air  and 
exercise  and  food  and  sleep  to  health  has  been  so  studied  from  the  standpoint  of 
science  and  experiment,  that  this  new  light  pouring  around  the  body  lengthens  its 
years  and  makes  them  not  only  longer  but  happier.  But  God's  world  being  all 
founded  upon  the  same  fundamental  law,  information  will  play  the  same  part 
in  morals  that  it  performs  in  the  medical  art,  and  will  tend  to  add  to  the  quantity 
of  virtue  as  truly  as  the  study  of  pathology  has  extended  the  human  lease  of  life. 
In  such  vast  empires  as  India  and  China,  where  murder,  and  theft,  and  infanticide 
are  customs  allied  to  those  of  religion  in  a  wonderful,  but  senseless  partnership,  the 
entrance  of  light  alone,  omitting  any  religious  principle,  has  gone  as  far  toward 
checking  the  bad  customs  as  the  new  steam  plow  in  Turkey  has  gone  towards  sup- 
planting the  old  crooked  stick  that  was  once  dragged  through  the  fields.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  ail  the  ills  of  mankind  come  from  their  not  being 
religious  or  conscientious,  and  that  all  the  human  family  needs  is  a  sudden  con- 
version to  our  Christianity.  Conversion  will  only  check  those  actions  which  the 
mind  knows  to  be  wrong,  but  will  only  add  fuel  to  a  line  of  bad  conduct,  which 
the  mind  supposses  to  be  right.  Keligious  conversion  brings  only  an  increased 
desire  to  follow  the  right,  but  it  does  not  designate  a  new  right  for  the  mind. 
Hence,  in  the*  dark  ages,  a  religious  revival  among  the  Catholics  was  always  at- 
tended by  a  new  slaughter  of  Protestants,  because  the  new  zeal  in  the  heart  did 
not  bring  any  new  information  to  the  intellect,  but  only  fanned  the  existing  ideas 
into  flame.  What  is  demanded  along  with  a  well-disposed  heart  is  a  well-informed 
intellect.  However  good  a  man  may  be,  it  will  be  perfectly  impossible  for  him  to 
escape  a  vice  unless  he  knows  it  to  be  such,  and  hence  information  or  knowledge  is 
an  absolute  condition  of  morality  or  manhood.  The  opium-eaters  among  the  lowest 
classes  in  China,  and  the  dirt  eaters  and  whisky  drinkers  among  the  Indian  tribes, 
do  not  descend  from  an  origin  of  sin  only,  but  from  an  ancestry  of  ignorance. 
Their  noble  life  will  come  not  simply  from  a  study  of  religion,  but  also  from  a 
study  of  physiology  and  all  the  laws  of  health  and  refinement.  Men  are  bad 
enough  through  sin,  but  they  arc  wretched  beyond  this  through  ignorance.  In 
India  the  most  devout  fakirs,  who  live  for  nothing  but  God  and  the  soul,  will  once 
a  day  roll  in  the  mud,  or  in  the  foulest  gutter,  in  order  to  show  their  contempt  for 
the  sinful  thing  called  the  body.  Now  what  those  fakirs  need  is  not  an  increase  of 
religion,  but  an  increase  of  sense.  They  need  to  learn  that  sin  is  not  in  the  body 
but  in  the  soul,  and  that  the  true  God  is  not  a  being  worshiped  by  a  beastly  con- 
duct, by  a  wallowing  in  the  mire,  but  by  a  noble,  perfect  soul  in  a  pure,  perfect 
body.  When  Christ  forgave  His  murderers,  on  the  ground,  that  they  knew  not 
what  they  did,  He  reafi5rms  for  us  the  proposition  that  much  of  the  world's  sin  and 
evil  comes  from  an  ignorance  that  thinks  in  the  midst  of  awful  actions  that  it  is 
doing  God's  service.  It  serves  Satan  under  the  supposition  that  he  is  God.  The 
evils  of  the  world  are  wider  than  the  direct  desire  of  mankind  to  commit  sin,  for 
millions  do  wrong  supposing  it  to  be  right,  hence,  in  order  to  find  some  foundation 
as  broad  as  this  dreadful  superstructure,  we  must  combine  ignorance  and  wicked- 
ness, and  then  we  have  the  base  adequate  for  the  fabric. 

Having  thus  found  that  ignorance  is  a  vast  cause  of  the  world's  great  evils, 


70  THE   GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF  VICE. 

we  infer  from  the  gradual  spread  of  intelligence  that  the  great  vices  are  on  the 
gradual  decline.  If  the  cause  is  declining  we  need  no  a  posteriori  inquiry  to  show 
us  that  the  efi'ect  must  he  so  far  on  the  wane.  If  the  supply  of  food  has  failed  in 
India,  we  need  not  wait  ninety  days  in  order  to  learn  the  effect  from  the  actual 
dying  heds  of  mothers  and  children  ;  and  if  a  rich  harvest  soon  comes,  we  need  not 
wait  to  learn  the  result  from  the  strong  men  in  the  streets  next  summer,  and  from 
the  ringing  laughter  of  children.  God's  world  is  so  unbending  in  its  relation  of 
cause  and  effect  that  the  moment  a  cause  is  abated  one  jot  you  may  assume  an 
equal  abatement  in  the  result.  Now,  much  of  the  evil  of  society  coming  from 
ignorance,  we  may,  so  far  as  ignorance  is  being  dispelled,  congratulate  the  world 
upon  a  decline  of  its  moral  sorrows. 

Having  thus  alluded  to  the  influence  of  increased  knowledge,  the  question 
that  remains  is,  Has  human  knowledge  increased  ?  Has  ignorance  been  modified  ? 
Has  this  plague  been  somewhat  abated  ?  We  think  that  no  one  will  deny  that 
knowledge  has  gradually  increased  in  those  nations  which  have  in  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years  spread  out  from  the  Mediterranean.  Light  steadily  advanced  in  the 
Hebrew  nation,  from  Abraham  to  Daniel ;  and  from  the  Greek  and  Koman  starting 
points  down  through  the  great  nations  of  Europe  and  America,  information  in  all 
departments  has  been  steadily  amassed  and  handed  down  from  one  era  to  the  next. 
Especially  in  the  last  three  centuries  has  all  truth  become  an  object  of  pursuit  and 
love,  and  hence,  every  science,  from  politics  to  chemistry,  every  inquiry,  from  the 
rights  of  the  throne  to  the  most  practical  physiology,  every  theory  of  health,  from 
a  study  of  health  to  a  study  of  exercise,  has  been  unfolded  in  new  breadth  and  new 
affection.  The  sciences  of  chemistry  and  physiology  and  hygiene  have  marshaled 
their  startling  truths  in  front  of  the  great  vices  of  the  social  evil,  and  intemperance 
of  drink  and  of  food,  and  have  battled  them  for  a  hundred  years,  and  the  attack 
Increases  in  fierceness  each  generation.  Hence,  if  there  be  some  relation  between 
ignorance  and  vice,  that  ought  to  be  abating  the  vice  which  is  confessedly  so  abat- 
ing the  ignorance. 

But  we  behold  another  great  light  shining  down  from  the  Mediterranean 
shore,  a  light  better  than  the  stars  that  shone  from  the  sky  of  Greece  and  the  sky 
of  Italy.  While  all  information  in  Christianity  or  politics  or  philosophy  has  its 
secret  influence  in  favor  of  virtue,  yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  knowledge  of  all 
the  high  duties  of  man,  man  as  related  to  self  and  to  friends  and  to  society  and  to 
God,  is  of  all  the  best,  and  if  any  truth  will  check  sin,  that  relating  to  duty  and 
soul  and  God  must  be  that  powerful  knowledge.  Looking  back  we  see  a  star  that 
makes  all  others  fade.  Its  light,  radiating  out  from  nothing  but  a  manger  in  the 
outset,  and  from  a  rude  cross  at  last,  has  for  eighteen  hundred  years  diffused  itself 
all  over  the  Western  hemisphere,  embracing  Kussia,  Germany,  France,  England, 
America,  all  as  a  mother  throws  her  arms  around  the  children  who  were  lost  but 
are  found.  Christianity  set  forth,  not  as  a  conversion  alone,  but  also  as  a  light 
for  the  mind.  Pontius  Pilate  may  have  been  sincere,  but  he  was  ignorant  of  duty, 
and  weak  in  his  moral  attributes.  Christianity  moved  upon  the  world  not  as  a 
simple  zeal,  but  as  a  light,  and  hence,  if  to  know  what  the  body  is,  and  what  the 
soul  is,  and  what  earth  is,  and  what  death  is,  what  heaven  and  what  hell  may  be ; 
if  to  have  some  just  conception  of  God,  if  to  hold  some  correct  view  about  our 
neighbor  and  all  the  reciprocal  duties  of  life,  if  to  know  the  golden  rule  and  that 
the  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God,  are  truths  of  any  value,  then  Christianity  comes 
as  the  profoundest  information  which  has  ever  burst  through  the  clouds  and  shone 
down  upon  the  world  of  man.  Looking  upon  Christ  as  a  moral  light,  and  looking 
as  far  as  a  feeble  intellect  can  grasp  such  an  effulgence,  we  ought  to  conclude  that 


THE  GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF   VICE.  71 

vice  has  suffered  a  shock  in  that  so  much  of  its  foundation  of  ignorance  has  been 
swept  away.  But  wc  reminded  you  that  evil  had  two  elements  in  its  foundation, 
the  one  ignorance,  the  other  hostility  to  the  truth,  even  when  well  ki:own. 
Cliristianity  attacks  both  these  foundations  of  evil,  and  works  equally  with  the 
intellect  and  the  heart,  revealing  duty  and  making  the  soul  love  duty. 

Seeing,  therefore,  a  gradual  increase  of  knowledge  from  the  great  Eastern 
sources,  Greece,  Kome,  and  Palestine,  and  seeing  this  knowledge  spreading  out 
Westward  in  all  that  varied  magnificence  of  science  and  Gospel,  of  crucible  and 
cross,  of  body  and  soul,  of  human  liberty  and  divine  love,  and  then  remembering 
the  invention  of  printing  which  has  poured  this  varied  wisdom  into  every  house 
as  sunlight  pours  into  the  window,  I  must  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  vices  of 
the  civilized  world  ought  to  be  on  the  decline.  There  are  agencies  abroad  in  the 
world  which  appear  adequate  to  a  reduction  of  the  quantity  of  wickedness. 

Our  second  inquiry  was  designated  as  being  a  survey  of  the  actual  facts  in  the 
case.  Having  seen  what  the  spread  of  light  ought  to  accomplish,  we  inquire 
whether  there  has  been  any  such  moral  achievement.  First,  let  me  warn  you 
against  supposing  that  the  loud  outcry  now  raised  on  all  sides  against  every  form 
of  vice  and  dishonor,  indicates  that  evil  is  on  the  advance  and  goodness  on  the 
decline,  for  the  present  turmoil  proves  only  that  the  public  sense  has  progressed 
so  far  that  it  will  no  longer  submit  silently  to  great  wrongs  and  follies.  The 
judgment  and  the  moral  and  prudential  senses  have  been  so  developed  in  the  past, 
especially  in  the  recent  past,  that  silence  is  no  longer  possible.  What  former  ages 
endured  easily  because  of  the  feeble  public  light  and  public  conscience,  raises  now 
a  vast  uproar  when  seen  in  the  new  light  and  morals  of  the  passing  century.  The 
great  emancipation  war  which  raged  in  our  land  from  1830  to  1860  did  not  arise 
from  the  new  barbarism  of  slavery,  for,  as  a  fact,  bondage  had  not  grown  more 
inhuman,  but  arose  from  the  fact  that  an  old  evil  had  encountered  a  new  in- 
tellectual and  moral  development,  and  hence  came  the  great  conflict.  It  is  with 
such  reflections  we  look  upon  the  present  conflict  over  intemperance  and  the  social 
evil.  These  monsters  have  not  absolutely  gained  in  vice  and  ferocity,  but  the 
public  conscience  has  grown  until  it  has  not  the  indiflference  to  vice  which  marked 
the  world  when  kings  lived  for  glory  and  pleasure  and  nobles  for  banquets  and 
the  fox-chase.  These  monsters,  which  wo  call  by  the  general  name  of  vice,  have 
been  dragging  their  foul  lengths  along  over  hundreds  of  years,  and  much  of  battle 
is  located  in  our  time,  because  it  has  so  gathered  light  from  reason  and  Christianity 
that  it  can  no  longer  endure  such  great  wrongs.  The  sin  has  been  stationary,  but 
the  public  impatience  has  advanced. 

Leaving  these  suggestions  to  the  judgment  of  each  of  you,  it  remains  to  allude 
only  in  a  brief  manner  to  the  historical  facts  in  the  case.  Whoever  would  deduce 
any  conclusions  regarding  the  moral  progress  of  society,  must  deal  only  in  long 
periods,  for  earth  is  a  star  whose  physical  days  are  indeed  composed  of  twenty-four 
hours,  but  whose  moral  days  are  eacli  as  a  thousand  years.  Coming  up  out  of 
God's  eternity,  where  ages  sink  like  snow-drops  in  the  ocean,  our  earth  brought 
with  it  this  awful  disregard  of  time,  and  makes  little  count  of  the  days  of  you  and 
me,  looks  upon  a  summer  and  a  winter  as  only  grains  of  sand  upon  its  mighty 
shore ;  and  all  our  three-score  years  sink  into  its  mighty  life  as  autumn  leaves  fall 
upon  the  mountain  side  and  are  only  received  tenderly  into  its  mold,  but  create  no 
jar  in  the  wide  and  deep  foundations  of  adamant.  To  estimate  the  morals  of  the 
human  family,  to  mark  an  increase  or  decrease  of  sin,  you  must  look  away  from 
this  day,  this  year,  this  generation,  and  so  far  as  possible  behold  all  the  impressive 
spectacle  that  reaches  from  the  old  Eden  to  the  newest  America. 


72  THE  GRADUAL   DECLINE   OF   VICE. 

What  was  the  past  ?  The  words  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  recall  at  once  some  of 
the  early  forms  of  the  world's  corruption.  The  vices  of  that  period,  as  revealed  in 
the  history  and  conduct  of  Lot,  were  not  the  incidental  vices  of  a  savage  tribe,  but 
the  vices  of  the  most  civilized  nations,  for  the  Hebrew  commonwealth,  as  far  as 
the  age  of  David  and  Solomon,  repeated  the  sins  of  Sodom,  only  upon  a  diminish- 
ing scale,  and  thus  was  a  mirror,  not  of  barbarism,  but  of  the  best  type  of  old 
civilization.  The  history  of  Egypt  is  a  history  of  mingled  science  and  splendor 
and  sin.  The  Egyptians  actually  worshiped  gods  of  vice,  and  in  all  respects  equaled 
the  reputation  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  for  indescribable  depravity.  The  exhuming 
of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  has  lifted  a  veil  from  the  customs  of  the  Greek  and 
Koman  worlds,  for  those  two  civilizations  were  combined  there,  and  there  at  that 
mountain's  base  those  two  cities  sat  while  nature  suddenly  embalmed  them  for 
far-off  generations.  The  excavations  there  reveal  equally  old  wealth  and  old  vice, 
art  and  dishonor,  a  cultivated  intellect  and  a  darkened  conscience,  a  light  upon 
canvass  and  marble,  but  little  light  upon  the  soul. 

Passing  by  the  notorious  immorality  or  impurity  of  the  Greek  and  Koman 
and  Egyptian  lands,  look  upon  some  features  of  those  ages  not  so  commonly  alluded 
to  in  these  surveys  of  antiquity.  Slavery  was  universal.  The  rights  of  man 
as  man  were  unknown.  The  Greeks  knew  the  rights  of  Greeks  ;  the  Komans  the 
rights  of  Eomans;  but  neither  knew  the  rights  of  man.  Hence,  no  citizen  did 
anything  which  a  slave  might  do.  If  pecuniarily  possible,  the  literary  man  lay 
upon  a  lounge  while  slaves  wrote  down  his  thoughts,  or  brought  and  took  away 
a  volume,  or  pre2:>ared  a  glass  of  fragrant  wine.  Marriage  was  a  frail  partnership, 
and  the  courtesan  often  more  honored  by  statesmen  than  the  more  refined,  home- 
loving  wife.  The  amphitheatres  were  a  full  blossoming  of  the  ignorance  of  the 
rights  of  man,  and  of  the  absence  of  mercy  from  the  heart.  In  days  when  ten 
thousand  innocent  men  were  dying  in  one  reign,  in  presence  of  eighty  thousand 
spectators,  composed  of  the  best  citizen  of  Kome,  Cicero  was  justifying  the  bloody 
spectacle ;  and  in  one  instance  when  no  exhibitions  had  been  given  for  a  time,  a 
petition  was  sent  to  the  district  governor,  or  prefect,  that  he  would  order  a  show 
at  the  amphitheatre,  and  he  graciously  said  "that  not  to  grant  their  request  would 
be  cruelty." 

All  through  this  Eoman  splendor  parents  held  the  power  of  life  and  death 
over  their  children,  and  infanticide  was  very  common  ;  and  next  in  cruelty  to 
that  was  the  exposing  of  infants,  under  the  law  that  whoever  found  the  exposed 
child  could  claim  it  as  his  slave  forever.  Its  chance  was  for  death  or  bondage. 
Mothers  who  did  not  choose  either  of  these  barbarous  resorts,  could  sell  their 
infants  into  bondage  in  open  market. 

Lecky  says  the  classic  religion  exerted  no  influence  upon  public  morals,  for 
when  it  taught  any  valuable  truth  there  was  no  religious  zeal  that  would  nourish 
the  truth  into  life.  At  your  leisure,  my  friends,  look  into  the  picture  of  Eoman 
and  Greek  life,  and  you  will  rise  from  the  study  thankful  that  you  live  in  even 
this  wicked  city,  and  that  between  your  home  and  antiquity  the  light  of  a  new 
knowledge  and  a  new  religion  has  fallen  in  heavenly  beauty.  As  to  the  great 
special  vices,  intemperance  and  the  social  evil,  which  so  injure  our  land,  it  ougiit  to 
cheer  the  heart  that  these  powerful  foes  are  only  two  out  of  a  large  host  which  once 
attacked  society,  and  that  these  two  are  feebler  than  they  were  a  hundred  years 
ago.  The  social  evil  was  almost  universal  in  Europe  from  Cassar  to  I^apoleon. 
Montaigne  says  there  were  no  virtuous  men  in  his  day,  and,  indeed,  we  all  know 
that  the  social  vice  has  swept  over  the  old  world  as  no  pestilence  or  war  ever  deso. 
lated  its  cities  and  homes.     As  to  the  use  of  drinks,  it  may  be  said  that  abstinence 


THE  GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF   VICE.  78 

was  almost  undreamed  of  before  our  generation,  and  an  intemperate  use  of  liquors, 
from  ale  to  distilled  drinks,  is  as  old  as  the  genius  that  invented  the  villainies. 

We  need  not  descend  into  particulars.  You  can  recall  them.  Called  upon  as 
you  are  to  contend  to-day  against  the  vices  of  our  land,  you  all  seem  fully  autho- 
rized to  feel  that  knowledge  and  religion  do  gradually  wear  away  these  hard 
rocks,  and  give  the  world  a  hetter  soil  for  the  moral  growth  of  this  generation 
and  its  children  and  the  myriads  to  come.  God  is  no  more  in  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation than  He  is  in  the  laws  of  reform,  and  hence  as  the  Niagara  has  cut  its  deep 
ravine  back  from  Queenstown,  so  the  moral  power  of  education  and  religion  are 
as  surely  carving  a  channel  through  the  mass  of  wickedness  on  earth.  God's 
word,  His  truth,  will  not  return  unto  Him  void.  As  the  sun's  heat  always  melts 
the  snow  of  our  fields,  and  always  will  while  sun  and  snow  continue,  so  the  word 
of  truth  spoken  by  anyone  anywhere  always  will  add  something  to  the  progress 
of  mankind.  God  is  not  only  immutable  in  the  law  of  chemistry  and  all  physics, 
but  in  the  laws  of  His  love,  and  if  His  children  assail  ignorance  with  truth  and 
Bin  with  cojiscicnce,  every  movement  of  the  humblest  Christian  will  record  itself 
for  good  in  the  bosoms  of  those  that  come  after  the  record.  Let  us  look  at  these 
great  facts  and  always  be  of  good  heart,  for  although  viewed  by  itself  alone,  the 
present  looks  dark  in  its  sinfulness,  and  although  the  efforts  of  Church  and  press 
seem  powerless,  yet  looking  away  from  our  few  years  and  reading  the  changes  of 
society  as  recorded  upon  the  centuries,  we  plainly  perceive  that  every  good  word 
and  deed  of  each  day  is  embalmed  in  the  groat  brain  and  bosom  of  mankind.  As 
each  tree  helps  make  the  green  of  the  distant  forest  and  does  its  part  in  the  impen- 
etrable shade,  so  the  truth  of  all  lips  to-day  and  the  prayer  of  each  heart  are,  in 
some  manner  unseen  to  us  but  seen  of  God,  handed  down  to  those  who  shall  come 
when  your  lips  and  heart  are  dust.  To  a  child  looking  upon  the  cold  sky  of  March 
it  seems  impossible  that  spring  and  summer  are  coming,  or  can  come,  but  the 
older  mind  looks  beyond  the  single  morning,  looks  beyond  April  and  May,  and 
beholds  in  June  a  continent  covered  with  waving  grasses  and  trees,  and  in  soft 
morning  air  dripping  with  dew-drops  from  Maine  to  Oregon.  Thus  gradually 
mankind  advances  toward  an  era  when  the  banner  of  knowledge  and  the  banner 
of  the  cross  shall  wave  over  every  city,  and  light  and  love  and  virtue  shall  be 
in  every  soul.  Such  a  destiny  is  read  in  the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  char- 
acter of  God. 


A  MISSIONARY  RELIGION. 


"Goye  therefore  and  teach,  all  nations." — Mai ihew  xxviii,  19. 

This  being  the  missionary  day  of  this  congregation,  it  would  he  a  great  neglect 
Df  duty  and  of  a  great  theme  of  inquiry  should  we  simply  make  our  annual  offer- 
ing of  gifts.  Once  a  year  at  least  we  may  well  look  at  the  cause  in  its  forms  of 
fact  and  philosophy,  and  thus  enable  ourselves  to  base  our  contributions  upon  some 
knowledge  of  their  destination  and  value.  The  Christian  religion  is  nothing  but 
a  great  mission  scheme,  of  which  the  world  is  the  field  and  Christ  the  first  and  the 
chief  of  a  missionary  host.  The  religious  systems  up  to  the  Savior's  day  were 
systems  only  for  the  porch  or  closet.  Most  of  the  moralists  were  only  men  of  seclu- 
sion, men  of  the  grove  or  the  porch,  who,  pacing  to  and  fro  a  few  steps,  spoke  as 
they  walked,  and  thus  were  dreamers  in  a  secluded  spot,  rather  than  messengers  to 
the  world.  It  was  necessary  for  the  few  who  knew  of  the  existence  and  haunts  of 
these  wise  men  to  make  long  journeys  to  their  presence,  and  there  encamp  for  a 
time  to  drink  in  the  sweet  waters  of  these  rare  springs.  In  all  those  days  of  Koman 
and  Greek  and  Indian  wisdom,  moral  systems  were  a  curiosity  more  than  a  public 
cultus,  and  were  studied  as  a  kind  of  mental  exercise,  rather  than  as  a  mode  of 
daily  life. 

"Whenever  a  moral  system  assumed  the  form  of  a  worship,  and  attempted  to 
spread  itself,  as  in  the  Hebrew  and  Mohammedan  states,  it  spread  as  a  government 
rather  than  as  a  religion.  It  sought  not  so  much  a  universal  salvation  as  a  uni- 
versal empire.  It  will,  it  seems,  be  sufliciently  true  if  we  affirm  that  the  New 
Testament  religion  is  the  only  one  that  deliberately  announced  the  idea  of  a  world- 
wide religious  crusade,  having  for  its  object  the  spiritual  enlightenment  and  trans- 
formation of  mankind.  It  cut  religion  away  from  state  duties  and  temptations  as 
from  a  deadly  hindrance,  and  sent  it  forth  upon  a  purely  spiritual  mission.  Sep- 
arating itself  from  government,  the  world  became  its  field,  and  man  universal 
became  its  object  of  prayer,  and  love  and  pursuit.  Hence  Christ  used  with  wonder- 
ful significance  the  word  "world."  He  Himself  was  the  light  of  the  "world,"  and 
He  sent  His  disciples  into  the  "world,"  and  the  "world"  was  to  be  preached  to  by 
His  messengers,  and  the  end  of  the  "world"  was  to  follow  this  wide  evangeliza- 
tion. If  you  will  read  carefully  the  Testament  for  this  purpose,  you  will  perceive 
that  Christianity  announced  itself  not  as  a  world-wide  state,  but  as  a  world-wide 
religion.  We  seem  to  hear  those  sacred  pages  saying,  "Long  enough  have  there 
been  local  forms  held  in  some  Jerusalem  available  only  after  long  journeyings,  long 
enough  have  there  been  wise  men  of  the  temple  and  the  porch  who  have  stood  afar 
from  the  people,  muttering  their  for  the  most  part  obscure  soliloquy,  long  enough 
have  the  sibyls  sung  their  ambiguous  words  from  hidden  caves  whither  none  but 
kings  or  warriors  could  come ;  full  time  is  it  for  a  word  that  shall  go  forth  to  the 
people,  be  they  of  empire  or  republic,  rich  or  poor,  and  upon  any  shore."  Such 
seems  the  announcement  upon  the  face  of  the  New  Testament,  and  in  grand  har- 


A   MISSIONARY  RELIGION.  76 

mony  with  this  professed  idea  Christ  moved  from  place  to  place  the  friend  of  all ; 
and  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  sailed  from  island  to  island  and  land  to  land,  the 
ambassador  to  the  world.  It  is  said  that  Paul  even  crossed  Spain,  and  at  the 
atlantic  coast  found,  as  ho  supposed,  the  limits  of  the  world.  That  broad  wave 
turned  him  back. 

The  fact  that  the  Christian  Church  was  first  named  an  ecclesia  points  out  not 
obscurely  its  ideal  scope,  for  that  word  had  for  hundreds  of  years  indicated  a  con- 
vention of  the  people.  The  Ecclcaia  was  the  Greek  house  of  representatives — a 
house  which  stood  as  a  check  upon  archons  and  senates,  a  mediator  between  the 
multitude  and  the  ambition  of  orators  and  generals.  As  the  public  throng  was 
called  by  heralds  who  passed  along  from  street  to  street,  the  meeting  was  so  named, 
"the  called  out,"  or  the  "ecclesia,"  and  from  such  associations  it  has  descended  to 
us.  Thus  all  the  parts  of  Christianity,  its  Christ,  its  apostles,  its  avowed  object, 
its  ignoring  states,  its  simplicity  of  doctrine  and  its  very  Church  name,  confess  it 
to  be  a  religion  for  the  whole  people,  and  hence  nothing  but  a  holy  crusade  against 
the  sins  of  the  wide  world. 

Such  being  the  avowed  design  of  the  founder  of  this  religion,  we  who  profess 
to  believe  it  are  in  the  path  of  duty  only  when  we  are  in  sympathy  with  this  large 
design,  and  are  shaping  our  thoughts  and  feelings  and  actions  to  this  immense 
scope  of  the  Gospel.  "We  as  a  Christian  nation  and  as  private  Christians  are  here 
to-day  in  what  religious  truth  we  have,  only  because  the  religion  of  Palestine 
assumed  the  form  of  a  mission  rather  than  of  a  local  faith.  Palestine  had  held  its 
Hebrew  ideas  for  two  thousand  years  without  having  sent  outward  one  single  chap- 
ter from  Isaiah  or  one  single  psalm  from  David.  Wonderful  and  divine  as  was  the 
Deism  of  the  old  Testament  compared  with  the  polytheism  of  the  classic  states, 
and  sacred  as  were  the  hymns  of  the  temple  compared  with  any  religious  songs  of 
the  surrounding  lands,  yet  none  of  the  theology  of  the  Hebrews  seems  to  have 
broken  out  of  its  national  confines  into  the  classic  world,  and  not  a  psalm  of  David 
seems  ever  to  have  sent  its  music  over  to  where  Homer  held  a  harp,  or  to  where 
Virgil  was  devoting  his  life  to  a  chaste  and  an  elevated  poetry.  Palestine  lay  beside 
Greece  for  hundreds  of  years  with  only  a  fragment  of  the  Mediterranean  between, 
and  yet  between  Athens  in  her  glory  and  Jerusalem  in  her  almost  equal  splendor, 
no  exchange  of  creed,  or  prayer,  or  hymn  seems  ever  to  have  taken  place.  What 
thoughts  these  two  cities  had  of  each  other  must  have  been  in  the  line  of  wonder- 
ing, when  the  armies  of  one  might  thunder  at  the  gates  of  the  other.  The  active 
idea  with  both  was,  not  how  they  might  spread  their  poetry,  or  their  psalms,  and 
their  worship,  but  how  they  might  advance  and  support  their  thrones. 

Born  into  such  a  spirit,  Christianity  would  have  remained  in  Palestine,  just  as 
Hebraism  had  remained  there.  But  Christ  reversed  the  genius  of  religion.  He 
separated  it  from  state,  and  attached  it  to  man  as  a  citizen  of  the  world ;  and  moved 
it  from  its  narrow  borders,  and  from  that  hour  the  psalms  of  David,  and  the  songs 
of  the  new  Church  began  to  cross  the  sea  by  every  wind  that  wafted  the  merchant's 
ship.  It  must  have  been  a  thrilling  passage  of  eloquence  when  one  of  the  Koman 
orators,  in  perhaps  the  second  century,  arose  in  the  public  assembly  and  said,  "Your 
altars  and  temples  are  all  becoming  vacant,  your  laws  are  passing  away  before  the 
temple  and  laws  of  this  Christ." 

The  violent  deaths  sufi"ered  by  the  early  apostles  and  disciples  prove  that  this 
religion  did  not  confine  itself  to  the  home  of  its  birth  or  attach  itself  to  the  existing 
temporal  powers,  but  did  so  cast  itself  forward  as  into  a  wider  destiny,  that  each 


76  .  A  MISSIONARY  RELIGION. 

petty  governor  feared  it  as  being  the  embodiment  of  a  most  unbridled  ambition. 
Paul  so  waked  up  the  world  by  bis  eloquence  that  he  was  put  to  death  at  Kome,  as 
though  likeCaasar  he  was  reaching  forth  for  a  crown  ;  John  was  banished  toPatmos, 
after  having  been  put  to  torture ;  James  was  hurled  from  a  battlement  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  thus  crushed  to  death  ;  Matthew  was  put  to  death  in  Abyssinia;  Simon 
Zelotes  received  his  crown  of  martyrdom  in  Persia;  and  in  Persia,  also,  Jude  was 
slain  by  a  cruel  death  ;  the  death  of  Thomas  took  place  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel ; 
Philip  was  hanged  to  a  pillar  in  Hierapolis  ;  Andrew  was  crucified  at  Patrasa  in 
Achaia,  and  James  of  Zebede  in  Asia  the  Less.  Thus  in  this  bloody  death-page, 
where  every  land  is  seen  to  have  opened  its  bosom  to  receive  the  mangled  form  of 
a  disciple,  we  read  in  these  crimson  letters  that  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  all 
which  may  claim  the  glory  of  having  taken  the  whole  world  into  its  heart.  All 
these  widely  separated  tombs  tell  us  that  from  the  cross  itself  the  testament  religion 
began  at  once  a  march  which  was  to  pay  no  more  regard  to  geographical  and 
national  lines  than  Christ  paid  when  He  died  for  humanity. 

How  much  the  Christian  philosophy  differed  from  either  the  Mosaic  or  the 
Indian  you  may  infer  from  the  two  facts,  first  that  no  Hebrew  hymn  passed  over 
to  Greece  or  Kome  in  500  years,  though  the  lands  lay  upon  one  small  sea  and  under 
one  sky,  and  yet  in  fifty  years  after  Christ  his  form  of  religion  had  penetrated  to 
the  British  islands.  Bishop  Stillingfleet  says  "there  is  good  evidence  that  the 
Christian  Church  was  planted  in  these  islands  in  the  first  century:"  perhaps  allud- 
ing to  the  evidence  of  Eusebius,  who  says  the  apostles  passed  over  the  ocean  and 
preached  in  the  British  isles,  and  to  Theodoret,  who  says  "the  Britons  embraced 
the  religion  of  the  fishermen  and  publicans  and  tent-makers."  In  the  former  part 
of  the  second  century  the  Gospel  had  reached  Germany,  Scythia,  Spain,  Gaul,  and 
Briton,  and  in  view  of  this  wonderful  contagion  an  orator  by  the  name  of  Arnobius 
said :  "Is  it  not  a  powerful  argument  that  in  so  short  a  time  the  sacraments  of 
Christ  are  diffused  over  the  world  ?  That  orators  and  rhetoricians,  lawyers  and 
philosophers  now  love  this  religion  and  despise  what  they  formerly  trusted  ?" 

It  would  seem  from  these  facts  that  the  religion  we  cherish  was  in  the  very 
outset  a  world-religion,  not  confessing  any  distinctions  of  place  and  people  such  as 
have  marked  all  other  forms  of  human  worship.  The  Hebrews  looked  over  their 
geographical  lines  with  only  covctousness  or  anger ;  the  Chinese  built  a  wall  that 
they  might  have  no  intercourse  with  the  multitudes  beyond,  and  calling  their  own 
land  the  "Celestial  empire,"  they  despised  all  other  climes;  and  so  all  through 
India  it  was  the  effort  of  thousands  of  years  to  build  up  such  a  law  of  caste  as 
would  include  certain  persons  in  favor  and  exclude  certain  others  forever.  In  the 
very  face  of  all  this  habit  of  society,  both  in  its  social  and  political  and  religious 
practice,  Christianity  came  as  a  world-wide  creed  and  worship,  the  most  universal, 
the  most  democratic,  the  most  generous,  the  most  God-like  of  all  religions  in  which 
the  knee  has  ever  bent  in  prayer. 

This  missionary  spirit,  which  is  bound  up  in  the  words  of  the  text  and  which 
sent  the  apostles  in  all  directions  spreading  out  from  the  tomb  of  Christ  like 
radiating  light  from  a  sun,  and  which  scattered  their  tombs  over  all  the  known 
world,  approached  our  Canadas  and  Floridas  when  the  natives  were  worshiping 
a  devil  and  pouring  out  the  blood  of  innocent  children  each  new  moon  to  appease 
his  wrath.  When  the  Spaniards  founded  their  New  Spain  on  the  Florida  coast, 
they  found  the  natives  offering  human  sacrifices,  and  wore  actually  drowning 
children  in  the  lake  to  please  their  horrid  deity.  Though  the  Spaniards  were 
seeking  only  wealth,   j'et  they  had  with  them  the   Catholic  religion,  and   that 


A  MISSIONARY  RELIGION.  77 

Gospel  they  planted  and  began  at  once  to  overthrow  the  inhuman  customs  of  the 
new  world. 

It  was  the  painful  degradation  of  America  and  of  several  lands  which  travel 
was  bringing  into  notice,  which  called  to  the  front  such  heroes  as  Xavier  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  You  have  heard,  once  before  at  least,  the  noble  response 
Xavier  made  when  his  friends  attempted  to  alarm  him  and  dissuade  him  when  he 
was  about  to  sail  upon  his  great  mission : 

"  Hush  you !  close  your  dismal  story. 

What  to  me  are  tempests  wild? 
Heroes  on  their  way  to  glory. 

Mind  not  pastimes  for  a  child. 
'Tis  for  souls  of  men  I'm  sailing. 

Blow  ye  winds  north,  south,  east,  west;' 
Though  the  storm  be  round  me  wailing 

There'll  be  calm  within  my  breast." 

It  was  the  advent  of  a  few  such  heroes  that  won  for  the  eighteenth  century 
the  name  of  the  "  Missionary  Century,"  but  our  century  has  come  now  to  rob  the 
past  one  of  its  special  fame.  The  era  laid  great  foundations  and  our  century  builds 
upon  its  solid  rock,  thus  dividing  the  honor  of  the  world's  evangelization. 

Thus  stands  that  great  religious  work  toward  which  you  are  asked  to  contribute 
your  mites  to-day,  gifts  which  will  perhaps  express  not  your  pecuniary  ability  so 
much  as  your  thought  or  care  about  this  vast  benevolence  among  your  fellow-men. 
A  gift  does  not  always  express  one's  power  but  often  only  the  amount  of  his  in- 
formation and  his  sympathy.  Thousands  give  little  because  they  know  and  caro 
so  little  about  the  matter  in  whose  name  the  offering  is  made.  It  ought  to  be 
enough  of  information,  the  single  remembrance,  that  our  religion  is  all  a  mission- 
ary action  and  a  missionary  result.  The  condition  of  this  land  compared  with  the 
old  centuries  of  cruelty  is  to  be  credited  to  the  outgoing  religion  of  Jesus  that  cuts 
the  cables  that  bound  their  ships,  and  sent  our  fathers  hither  when  the  land  was  a 
wilderness  and  the  very  sky  full  of  wintry  storm.  It  was  not  the  richness  of  the 
soil,  not  the  flowing  rivers,  not  the  chains  of  lakes,  not  the  timber  of  the  forests, 
not  the  ores  in  the  earth,  which  have  given  our  country  its  happiness  and  varied 
excellence,  for  the  Indian  roamed  all  over  this  grand  continent,  but  remained  a 
savage  still ;  it  was  not  civil  liberty  alone  that  made  us  a  great  people,  for  the 
Indians  enjoyed  the  most  perfect  civil  liberty  all  over  this  broad  prairie  and 
mountain  world ;  it  was  rather  the  religious  and  ethical  ideas  which  were  sent 
over  in  the  Christian  ships  that  marked  out  a  future  nobler  than  the  career  of  the 
savage.  Money  was  gathered  just  as  we  ask  for  it  to-day,  and  brave  hearts  sailed 
away  from  home  and  country,  just  as  now  the  missionary  sails,  and  that  gave  us 
America,  just  as  your  gifts  and  a  hundred  years  will  give  the  world  a  Christian 
India  or  a  Christian  Chinese  Empire. 

"  Now  as  the  conquerer  comes. 

They,  the  true-hearted,  came 
Not  with  the  roll  of  stirring  drums 

And  the  trumpet  that  sings  of  fame. 

"Not  as  the  flying  come 

In  silence  and  in  fear ; 
They  shook  the  depths  of  the  deserts  gloom. 

With  their  hymns  of  lofty  cheer." 

This  poem  recalls  the  cause  of  American  greatness,  and  the  deep  foundations 
of  her  destiny,  but  this  hymn  is  nothing  else  than  a  repetition  of  the  sentiment 
that  moved  Francis  Xavier,  and  Paul,  and  the  divine  Master  of  all. 


78  A  MISSIONARY  RELIGION. 

In  our  country  all  this  form  of  benevolence  merits  a  special  respect,  inasmuch 
as  the  Protestant  Churches  have  ignored  the  distinctions  of  sects  which  prevail  at 
home,  and  for  almost  a  hundred  years,  dating  from  the  London  society,  have  gone 
to  the  benighted  lands  in  the  name  of  great  leading  truths  of  Christianity  instead 
of  in  the  name  of  a  multitude  of  sectarian  ideas.  Although  recently  certain  fields 
have  been  assigned  to  certain  great  denominations,  yet  this  has  been  done  in  the 
name  of  efBciency  and  economy  rather  than  in  the  name  of  sectarianism.  After 
the  hundred-year  experiment,  there  is  no  probability  that  any  missionary  gold 
will  be  exhausted  upon  any  indoctrination  of  the  heathen  world  in  denominational 
ideas,  for  the  tendency  of  the  present  is  to  abandon  sectarian  ideas  at  home ;  hence 
there  will  be  little  disposition  to  inculate  abroad  doctrines  which  are  rapidly  dying 
by  our  own  firesides.  The  Church  of  England  joins  with  the  dissenting  Churches 
in  India  as  a  fact,  and  cares  little  for  the  apostolic  succession  in  a  land  where  the 
Brahmin  can  so  far  outdo  it  in  the  quantity  and  absurdity  of  holy  touchings  and 
holy  pedigrees.  And  there  the  Calvinist  conceals  his  five  points,  for  the  crowd  of 
Indian  philosophers  can  always  propose  ten  points  far  more  obscure,  and  thus  all 
the  Protestant  sects  approach  the  whole  pagan  world  with  the  Gospel  reduced  to 
its  simplest  expression.  Blessed  era  it  will  be  when  we  shall  be  as  fully  ashamed 
in  America  of  the  things  that  divide  us  as  we  are  when  our  feet  touch  India  or 
Japan.  Can  it  be  possible  that  it  requires  home  training,  that  is,  local  and  youthful 
prejudice,  to  enable  us  to  see  the  immense  worth  of  our  dogmas,  and  that  approach- 
ing foreigners  not  fully  drilled  in  the  sectarian  method  and  tactics  we  fear  their 
smile  of  unbelief  or  derision?  It  is  ominous  if,  having  a  score  or  so  of  peculiar 
ideas,  we  should  all  get  together  and  agree  to  say  little  about  them  to  this  China- 
man and  that  Brahmin.  Such  a  condition  of  things  would  seem  to  indicate  one 
more  step  along  this  path,  an  agreement  to  say  little  about  these  difierences  to 
persons  not  pagans  and  not  upon  foreign  shores. 

We  have  come  to-day  to  a  survey  of  Christianity  in  its  truest  significance,  and 
hence  in  its  wanderings  about  from  race  to  race,  from  island  to  continent,  from 
river  to  sea,  we  may  learn  what  are  its  essential  parts.  A  student  shutting  him- 
self up  in  his  room  may,  from  the  Bible,  elaborate  a  perfect  system  which  shall 
omit  nothing  regarding  to  human  will  or  the  mode  of  quality  of  everything,  but 
the  world  in  actual  experiment  may  not  need,  nor  even  faintly  appreciate,  one- 
tenth  part  of  this  closet-made  system.  But  when  the  Gospel  is  observed  out  among 
men  in  India  and  America,  there  in  the  faces  and  life  of  its  votaries  one  may  make 
out  such  a  true  biblical  theology  as  no  closet  can  ever  produce  The  whole  mission 
work  at  home  and  abroad  is  the  best  interpretation  of  Jesus  Christ  that  we  can 
anywhere  find,  for  it  determines  for  us  what  truths  on  the  sacred  page  are  most 
valuable  for  the  vast  stream  of  life  that  is  pouring  along  across  earth  to  eternity. 
If  this  spectacle  is  not  badly  read  it  indicates  that  what  the  world  needs  is  a  per- 
fect combination  of  Christ  as  an  example  and  Christ  as  a  mediator,  a  full  confession 
of  man's  power  and  God's  power,  a  full  conversion  and  a  high  enlightenment.  The 
world  reveals  three  great  wants  —  pardon  through  Christ,  light  through  Christ,  a 
new  heart  through  the  Spirit.  Give  a  soul  these,  release  from  its  guilt,  a  new  heart 
for  new  deeds,  new  light  that  its  deeds  may  be  right,  and  it  has  found  the  inmost 
heart  of  Christianity.  Not  only  does  the  great  mission  movement  at  home  and 
abroad  reveal  the  valuable  part  of  theology,  but  it  declares  to  us  what  Christianity 
is  in  its  essence.  It  is  only  a  perpetual  crusade.  It  is  not  a  life-long  encampment 
in  the  midst  of  luxury  and  ease,  but  is  a  march  in  search  of  the  happiness  and 
holiness  of  society.  Hence,  the  great  awakenings  of  the  past  have  come  from 
Christians  who  were  almost  homeless  and  Churchless,  who  were  light-armed  and 


A  MISSIONARY  RELIGION.  79 

iinencumbered,  fully  out  in  the  world  for  a  campaign.  Mankind  does  not  run  to  a 
new  life  from  an  instinct.  Men  make  long  journeyings  to  fields  where  diamonds 
are  sown,  and  to  whore  gold  sparkles  in  the  sand,  but  they  do  not  seek  a  spiritual 
religion  thus.  It  makes  the  journeyings  and  bears  the  cross,  the  hymn  and  prayer, 
to  Greenland's  icy  mountains  and  India's  coral  strand. 

It  is  the  glory  of  these  missionary  centuries  that  they  have  inaugurated  a 
religion  which  does  not  withdraw  into  a  little  circle  marked  out  by  wealth,  or 
ease,  or  selfishness,  and  there  wait  for  a  wicked  world,  and  a  neglected  and  unwel- 
come world,  to  come  and  beg  to  be  let  into  the  mercies  of  Christ  hidden  by  the 
cruelty  of  man,  but  a  religion  which  issues  forth  from  the  disgraceful  repose  of  past 
ages  and  sings  its  hymn  and  oflTers  a  loving  invitation  out  in  the  wide  world  by 
every  shore,  under  every  sky.  The  world  has  seen  enough  of  a  religion  which 
wraps  itself  up  in  indiflference  and  knows  and  cares  nothing  of  the  human  family. 
Greece  had  such  a  type  of  morals,  Kome  had  such  a  form  of  spiritual  death;  and 
enough  has  the  world  had  of  religion  that  was  bound  to  state  and  had  no  destiny 
but  that  of  empire ;  and  ready  now  is  society  for  a  Christlike  faith  that  goes  forth 
like  the  perfume  of  roses  free  to  child  and  king  alike,  a  fragrance  which  climbs 
over  walls  and  out  of  palace  windows,  and  mounting  into  the  chariot  of  the  sum- 
mer wind  crosses  the  field  of  the  poor  laborer  and  the  highway  of  the  traveler,  a 
breath  from  heaven,  an  emblem  of  God's  grace. 


CHRISTIANITY  A  LIFE. 


"For  the  law  of  the  spirit  ot  life  in  Christ  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  — 
Rom.  8,  2. 

In  the  verses  adjoining  our  text,  Paul  clothes  the  sinful  nature  of  man  with 
the  attributes  of  a  person  or  spirit,  and  thus  while  in  man's  intellect  there  is  a 
spirit  of  good,  there  is  in  his  body  at  large  a  sprit  of  evil.  Instead  of  teaching  the 
Manichsean  idea  of  two  souls,  he  seems  only  using  the  varied  forms  of  illustration 
admissible  in  rhetoric,  and  in  this  liberty  speaks  of  a  good  in  the  mind  and  an 
evil  in  the  flesh.  From  this  figure  he  passes  to  that  of  two  laws,  one  that  is  spirit- 
ual, and  one  that  is  material,  of  the  flesh,  and  when  he  would  do  good  at  the 
command  of  the  former,  he  suddenly  does  bad  at  the  command  of  the  latter. 
As  in  a  dream  one  often  in  his  whole  mind  wishes  to  fly  from  danger  but  finds 
his  feet  unable  to  run  or  his  voice  to  sound  the  alarm,  and  thus  is  wholly  baffled 
by  the  conflict  between  his  wishes  and  his  feet,  so  Paul  stood  still,  his  life  being 
neutralized  between  the  conception  of  a  noble  life  which  lay  in  his  reason  and  the 
instinct  of  a  wicked  life  that  lay  in  his  flesh.  He  delighted  in  the  law  of  God,  but 
he  saw  another  law  in  the  members  warring  against  the  law  of  his  mind,  and 
bringing  him  into  a  captivity,  and-thus,  oh  wretched  man  that  he  was,  with  no 
one  to  deliver  him  from  a  body  full  of  death,  from  a  flesh  that  warred  with  the 
spirit.  Thus  might  a  dreamer,  whose  feet  would  not  move  in  the  moment  of  peril, 
pray  to  be  set  free  from  such  a  body  of  death  that  the  released  soul  might  escape. 
Commentators  inform  us  that  prisoners  were  often  fastened  to  a  dead  body  as  part 
of  their  punishment ;  but  evidently  here  Paul  would  love  to  be  delivered  from  his 
own  flesh,  which  carried  in  it  such  perpetual  discord  as  to  the  spirit's  highest  ideal. 
He  had  a  dead  body  of  his  own.  While  Paul  was  thus  dragged  in  two  ways  by 
two  equally  balanced  forces,  there  came  to  him  a  new  force,  even  Christ,  who 
turns  the  tide  of  battle,  and  soon  the  triumphant  apostle  said  that  the  spirit  ot 
life  in  Christ  had  made  him  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  The  influence  of 
a  life  in  Christ  was  so  spiritual  that  the  law  of  the  humble,  depraved  flesh  had 
retired  from  the  strife,  and  had  left  the  law  of  the  mind  free. 

From  these  seventh  and  eighth  chapters  springs  up  much  of  the  "holiness" 
idea  of  some  of  the  Methodists,  and  from  them  sprang  the  German  mysticism  of 
the  fourteenth  century ;  but  to  us  living  in  a  less  impassioned  age  comes  the  plain 
lesson  that  Christianity  is  a  Life.  That  spirit  of  life  which  was  in  Christ,  that 
spirit  of  being,  so  far  above  the  sins  and  weaknesses  of  common  humanity,  devel- 
oped also  those  who  were  "in  Christ,"  and  they  walked  no  more  after  the  flesh, 
but  after  the  spirit.  By  common  consent,  if  not  by  actual  demonstration,  it  is 
affirmed  of  material  things  that  they  will  peiish.  From  the  great  gardens  of 
Babylon  to  the  hut  of  the  peasant,  from  the  splendor  of  marble  palaces  to  the  bloom, 
ing  roses,  all,  all,  the  cheek  of  youth,  the  eye  of  beauty,  will  fade  and  become 
dust.  So  perfect  is  this  desolation,  that  even  the  heavens  must  pass  away  as  a 
scroll  and  the  elements  all  melt  with  fervent  heat.     Along  with  this  perishable 


CHRISTIANITY  A   LIFE.  81 

organic  world  will  go  all  the  mental  actions  and  emotions  that  were  based  wholly 
upon  it.  Appetite,  passion,  ambition,  all  states  of  mind  that  grew  up  from  the 
material  of  earth,  point  downward  toward  that  dust  whence  they  came,  and  as 
the  poet  says, 

"Here  the  sword  and  sceptre  rust," 

along  with  them  will  perish  the  passion  that  drew  the  sword  or  the  tyranny  that 
swayed  the  sceptre. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  common  consent,  the  world  accepts  of  a  spiritual  realm 
which  is  the  antithesis  of  the  great  dust-seeking  kingdom,  a  world  where  all  the 
ideas  and  sentiments  and  actions  are  tending  away  from  the  grave,  and  are  reach- 
ing up  toward  where  Goddwoll*,  to  the  land  of  immortal  life.  Love,  charity, 
friendship,  righteousness,  benevolence,  belong  to  a  certain  upper  life  called  the 
life  of  the  spirit. 

Passing  by  the  inquiry  how  the  humble,  dust-loving  soul  may  be  transformed 
into  such  a  spiritual  character  as  that  one  which  came  to  Paul  at  Damascus,  we 
come  to  the  simple  idea  of  the  text  that  Christianity  is  a  spiritual  life  as  compared 
with  a  material  or  fleshly  life  ;  that  it  is  a  life  regulated  by  a  law  of  the  spiritual 
world,  the  opposite  of  a  life  regulated  by  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

When  some  of  the  former  centuries  came  up  to  these  two  lives,  the  one  of 
spirit  and  the  other  of  flesh,  they  came  to  a  great  truth,  but  they  ruined  the  great 
principle  by  their  false  definition  of  both  the  lives.  They  made  the  whole  circle 
of  human  joy  and  industry  and  pleasure  to  be  the  life  of  sin  and  death,  and  they 
made  a  life  of  retirement  and  self-denial  to  be  the  ideal  of  spiritual  existence. 
Hence  came  all  that  development  of  human  sorrow  seen  in  the  old  monastic,  ascetic 
system.  When  we  remember  Pascal,  who  tried  to  eat  his  food  without  being 
conscious  of  its  pleasant  taste,  and  who  would  not  permit  his  sister  to  address  him 
kindly,  lest  he  might  experience  the  weakness  of  a  human  friendship ;  and  when 
we  read  that  a'-Kempis  did  not  look  upon  the  glory  of  springtime,  because  such 
material  beauty  might  make  him  forget  the  moral  beauty  of  God,  we  perceive  the 
doctrine  of  a  sinful  and  a  higher  life  all  ruined  by  the  false  definitions  of  the  two 
shapes  of  being.  They  grasped  the  truth  that  religion  is  a  life,  but  failed  to  know 
what  life  is  in  its  truest  significance.  They  thought  the  whole  outer  world  a  sin  and 
a  dungeon,  the  only  arena  of  virtue.  Our  century  having  reached  a  new  measure- 
ment of  life,  having  defined  the  word  "flesh"  to  mean  only  sinful  pursuits,  and 
having  enlarged  the  spiritual  life  until  it  embraces  all  the  pleasures  and  honors, 
all  the  faculties  of  body  and  soul,  having  reversed  the  past  by  declaring  all  God's 
world  to  be  the  arena  of  virtue,  and  a  monk's  cell  to  be  the  soul's  eclipse,  it  should 
now  come  up  afresh  to  the  proposition  that  Christianity  is  a  Life  and  by  its  new 
wisdom  restore  a  truth  which  the  past  has  already  ruined  by  its  folly.  Before 
mankind  will  consent  that  Christianity  is  to  be  their  life,  they  will  need  to  know 
what  you  mean  by  "life,"  for  if  you  indicate  by  that  term  the  ascetism  of  Pascal, 
or  the  narrowness  and  severity  of  the  Puritans,  they  will  reject  the  religion  as 
rapidly  as  all  the  pulpits  can  ofier  it.  Only  in  the  current  year  has  a  pamphlet  been 
issued  by  a  clergyman,  calling  the  attention  of  tJiis  synod  to  the  alarming  fact, 
that  there  are  Churches  all  through  the  land  which  have  built  a  kitchen  depart- 
ment, and  do  in  many  ways  thus  dare  to  combine  the  temporal  and  the  eternal. 
And  last  week  wo  read  a  printed  letter  from  some  religionist,  who  was  arguing 
with  great  zeal  against  the  common  household  games  of  every  kind,  as  being  only 
stepping  stones  to  the  great  games  played  for  a  stake.  With  such  intellects  ("if 
shape  that  can  be  called  which  shape  hath  none")  to  throw  down  before  a  com- 
munity not  naturally  partial  to  the  Gospel  a  definition  of  life,  is  to  cast  before  the 


82  CHRISTIANITY  A  LIFE. 

pulpit  not  only  the  common  obstacle  of  original  sin,  but  the  additional  stumbling- 
block  of  fresh,  monkish  absurdity.  But  for  generations  the  Gospel  has  had  to 
contend,  not  only  against  the  "total  depravity"  of  the  world,  but  against  the 
almost  "total  infirmity"  of  the  Christian  intellect,  for,  with  the  New  Testament 
declaring  Christ  to  be  a  life,  the  Church  has  almost  drowned  the  voice  by  so  defin- 
ing "life,"  that  educated  persons  could,  with  great  difiiculty,  be  persuaded  to  seek 
or  even  to  admire  it.  With  life  defined  as  a  solemnity,  as  a  sorrow,  with  home 
transformed  into  a  prison,  of  which  tbe  father  was  the  jailer,  with  the  Church 
conducted  as  a  penance,  with  all  the  pleasures  of  life  identified  with  sin,  laughter 
being  a  form  of  evil  spirit  in  the  young,  with  Sunday  weighed  down  by  austerities, 
the  Church,  instead  of  making  men  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  rather  per- 
fected the  bondage,  and  brought,  if  not  sin  at  least  a  death  of  the  intellect  and  the 
heart. 

Before  we  can  preach  Christ  as  a  "new  life,"  a  life  of  the  spirit,  it  is  necessary 
that  we  declare  before  all  the  world  that  the  spiritual  life  is  wide  and  deep  and 
beautiful.  It  is  not  the  life  of  Pascal  nor  St.  Bernard.  It  is  not  the  life  of  the 
early  Calvinist.  It  is  not  the  life  of  the  later  Puritan,  nor  of  the  Quaker  who 
despises  music  and  literature,  nor  of  the  pietists  who  have  discarded  reason,  and 
who  wait  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  tell  them  when  to  sleep  and  when  to  wake,  when 
to  read  and  when  to  walk  !  No  I  Life  must  be  defined  with  the  map  of  earth 
before  us,  and  into  its  pleasures  must  enter  all  the  landscapes  and  all  the  seasons, 
all  the  fruits  and  flowers,  all  its  forests,  plains,  and  mountains ;  must  be  defined 
with  the  map  of  the  mind  before  us,  with  all  its  faculties  of  conscience  and  reason 
and  imagination  and  sentiment ;  must  be  defined  with  the  map  of  society  before 
us,  with  all  the  obligations  and  duties  which  spring  from  the  presence  of  our 
fellow-men  in  all  their  conditions  and  destinies,  and  above  all  must  be  defined 
with  the  outlook  of  the  soul  before  us,  with  its  wonderful,  almost  divine,  relations 
to  God  and  the  Savior,  and  to  worship  here  and  eternity  hereafter.  That  it  has 
called  the  infinite  career  of  man  as  to  this  world  by  the  name  of  "flesh,"  and  has 
frowned  upon  it  as  being  subject  to  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  is  a  calamity  out  of 
which  our  generation  is  struggling  hard  to  escape,  that  it  may  find  a  religion 
which  the  young  may  accept  without  chilling  their  hearts,  and  which  the 
educated  may  accept  without  exchanging  a  broad  world  of  study  for  the  nar- 
rowness and  complainings  of  a  monk. 

Our  century  perceives  that  under  all  the  pursuits  and  pleasures  of  this 
existence  the  law  of  a  spiritual  nature  may  lie,  and  that  a  naturalist,  or  a  statesman, 
or  a  queen,  or  a  musician,  or  a  judge  on  the  bench,  or  a  young  heart  in  the  open 
fields,  may  be  wholly  within  the  spiritual  life  introduced  to  our  gaze  by  the 
Savior.  The  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  is  nothing  more  than  a  grand, 
broad  human  life  all  pervaded  by  righteousness,  and  a  certain  elevated  sentiment 
toward  God  and  man.  A  spiritual  life  is  only  a  life  purified  and  elevated.  It  is 
not  an  existence  narrowed  as  our  ancestors  thought,  but  a  life  sweetened  by  holier 
impulses.  Compare  the  politics  of  Charles  Sumner  and  the  politics  of  Henry  VIII. 
Under  that  of  the  American  lay  a  spiritual  law,  lifting  all  his  words  up  into  the 
higher  air  of  God;  under  that  of  the  English  king  lay  the  law  of  the  flesh,  drag- 
ging the  throne  down  toward  the  infernal  world.  Thus  all  through  human  being 
spirituality  is  not  a  shrinkage  of  the  heart  into  the  limits  of  a  cell,  but  a  purifica- 
tion of  its  vast  natural  breadth  and  depth.  The  middle  age  Christianity  was  a 
destruction  of  man,  but  the  true  Christianity  is  an  expansion  of  the  whole  human 
intellect  and  sentiment.  As  the  philosophy  of  Guizot  or  Cousin  was  only 
expanded  by  their  spirituality  above  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus,  who  said,  "Let 


CHRISTIANITY  A  LIFE.  .  83 

us  eat,  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we  die,"  so  all  human  life,  from  its  love 
of  nature  and  love  of  friends  and  love  of  truth,  to  all  its  powers  of  progress  and 
enjoyment,  is  only  enlarged  by  the  spirituality  which  Christianity  casts  into  these 
many  streams  of  its  action  and  being. 

It  is  with  such  an  definition  of  life  before  us  that  we  gladly  announce  the 
proposition  that  Christianity  is  not  a  group  of  doctrines,  not  a  long,  hard  creed, 
but  is  a  life.  A  creed  is  much  like  the  architect's  plan  of  a  house.  If  competent 
workmen  should  follow  those  plans  a  house  would  be  the  result,  so  when  any  one 
possesses  an  orthodox  creed  in  his  mind  as  being  true,  he  is  in  the  situation  of  a 
man  who  has  plans  for  a  palace  or  a  ship  or  a  home.  He  has  all  except  the  palace 
or  the  ship  or  the  home.  When  any  one  comes  to  us  boasting  over  his  perfect 
creed,  we  should  remind  him  that  if  he  will  only  live  that  creed  he  will  become 
a  Christian. 

We  all  remember  when  the  Hungarian  patriot  journeyed  all  over  our  country 
carrying  with  him  a  written  constitution  of  a  free  state.  He  even  issued  bonds  in 
the  name  of  the  new  republic  of  Hungary.  That  parchment  was  the  creed,  but 
inasmuch  as  a  state  is  not  a  creed,  but  a  life,  the  great  Hungarian  must  sit  down 
in  sorrow  and  wait  for  death  to  remove  him  from  a  world  of  blighted  hope.  The 
creed  of  the  church  is  just  such  a  written  constitution.  It  has  been  read  long  and 
loud  at  all  crossroads,  but  I  will  leave  it  for  you  all  to  answer  whether  we  have 
the  house  or  only  the  plans  of  the  architect,  whether  we  have  the  state  or  only  a 
good  constitution  for  one  in  some  far  olf  futurity. 

It  is  a  most  singular  fact  that  in  this  great  temperance  reform  there  is  one 
special  multitude  of  intemperate  men,  and  a  large  multitude  it  is  too,  which 
sustains  full  membership  in  an  orthodox  Church,  in  a  Church  that  surpasses  all 
others  in  asserting  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  the  expiatory  atonement.  No  Church 
can  equal  it  in  delineating  the  pains  of  hell  and  the  joys  of  heaven,  and  yet  with 
all  these  cardinal  doctrines  flaunted  upon  its  silk  banners  and  intoned  by  all  it? 
priests,  this  most  profoundly  orthodox  Church  sends  forth  from  its  bosom,  especially 
from  its  Emerald  Isle,  a  swarm  of  human  beings  almost  wholly  ruined  by  poverty, 
ignorance,  and  vice.  They  land  upon  our  shores  by  the  thousands  every  week,  and 
against  their  coming  we  do  not  object,  for  all  Christian  hearts  ought  to  welcome 
them  from  a  land  of  famine  and  bondage  to  one  of  plenty  and  liberty;  but  comin", 
they  prove  that  an  orthodox  creed  no  more  indicates  actual  Christianity  than 
poor  Kossuth's  constitution  was  equivalent  to  an  enlightened  state.  The  sorrows 
of  Ireland  all  come  from  the  fact  that  no  Christianity  has  ever  been  given  them, 
except  that  of  a  complex  series  of  articles  ;  the  spirit  of  life  which  was  in  Christ 
has  not  been  bu3y  these  hundreds  of  years,  freeing  them  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death,  but  instead  of  this  spirit  of  Christ's  life  being  preached  and  acted  before 
them,  a  hundred  articles  have  been  repeated  over  their  darkened  minds  and  en- 
slaved hearts,  with  the  accompaniment,  "Believe  and  go  to  heaven,  or  disbelieve 
and  be  lost." 

In  this  awful  treatment  of  human  souls  the  Catholic  Church  did  not  alone 
approach  Ireland,  but  accompanied  by  a  vast  Protestant  Chnrch  which,  repeating 
the  same  creed,  did  not  exact  even  that  fragment  of  piety  to  be  found  in  an  in- 
tellectual assent,  but  only  so  much  of  the  "spirit  of  life  in  Christ"  as  is  found  in 
heavy  taxes  imposed  upon  the  poor  to  support  an  idle  royalty.  Between  the 
Eoman  Church,  which  carried  nothing  to  Ireland  but  words,  and  the  English 
Church,  which  sent  them  nothing  but  an  armed  posse  to  drain  rents,  the  poor 
island  has  groaned  for  hundreds  of  years  under  Paul's  law  of  sin  and  death.  But 
I  often  think  that  God  at  times  selects  some  spot  of  earth  to  be  an  example,  and 


84  CHRISTIANITY  A   LIFE. 

there  permits  some  of  man's  errors  to  culminate,  that  other  lands  may  see  the 
awful  outcome  of  their  own  religious  and  social  philosophy.  "What  would  Ireland 
not  have  been  to-day,  with  its  rich  soil,  its  perpetual  spring,  its  ocean  roads  con- 
necting it  with  all  nations,  with  its  great  race  of  Celts  and  Gauls,  which  race  is 
the  best  of  all  history,  if  only  the  Roman  and  English  Churches  had  gone  with  a 
Christianity  that  was  a  life,  instead  of  with  one  which  was  only  forms  and  taxa- 
tion ?  There  can  be  no  Christianity  without  a  new  spiritual  life.  Its  first  move 
is  to  rise  above  intemperance,  above  all  bad  passions,  above  ignorance,  above  idle- 
ness, above  barbarism,  which  is  only  a  general  name  for  sin,  and  to  this  end  it  is  a 
light  to  enlighten  and  a  spirit  to  transform,  and  under  these  forces  the  soul  be- 
comes freed  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  and  rises  like  Paul  up  toward  the 
higher  being.  But  instead  of  going  to  the  green  isle  with  this  spiritual  regenera- 
tion, two  of  the  largest  Churches  in  Christendom,  the  Eoman  and  the  English, 
repaired  thither,  the  former  with  nothing  but  a  poor  belief,  the  latter  with  taxes 
and  with  the  same  belief,  only  modified  far  enough  to  become  unwelcome.  Be- 
tween both  these  good  Samaritans  money  and  education  and  virtue  and  self-respect 
and  industry  and  hope  disappeared  ;  and  now  all  the  poor  Irish  at  home  and 
abroad  can  do  is  to  celebrate  each  year,  in  March,  the  memory  of  one  Christian 
saint  who  once  touched  that  island,  a  thousand  years  ago-  It  is  to  be  hoped  the 
story  is  true,  for  so  few  Christians  have  touched  those  shores  since,  that  we  would 
better  as  long  as  possible  cherish  this  lonely  legend. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  long  over  Ireland,  because,  as  I  said,  it  is  only  a  spot  where 
a  philosophy  that  exalts  a  creed  and  depresses  a  life  has  come  to  full  maturity,  and 
thus  points  out  the  destiny  that  awaits  our  land  so  sure  as  we  fail  to  make  our 
i-eligion  aim  at  the  education  and  morals  of  men. 

The  danger  of  being  misunderstood  when  one  thus  speaks  about  creeds,  or  of 
being  misinterpreted  by  those  who  do  not  wish  to  understand,  is  fully  appreciated  ; 
but  the  fact  in  the  case  is  so  true  and  so  alarming,  that  the  danger  of  my  being 
misunderstood  is  nothing  compared  with  the  danger  of  the  public  morals,  if  Christ 
should  not  be  more  fully  presented  as  a  life.  He  must  lift  upward  the  whole  mental 
nature  until  all  intemperance,  all  dishonesty,  all  uncharitableness,  shall  be  loathed 
aa  a  deep  dishonor.  Christ  must  be  an  education,  a  refinement,  a  purity  of  heart; 
not  a  history  attested  by  four  evangelists  and  confirmed  by  Josephus  and  Tacitus, 
and  hence  believed,  but  a  spirit  entering  the  heart  and  sweeping  away  the  law  of 
sin  and  death.  An  intemperate  Christian,  or  a  dishonest  Christion,  must  be  con- 
fessed to  be  the  real  infidel,  for  whatever  his  lips  may  say,  his  soul  is  against 
Christ.  There  are  islands  in  the  Pacific  which  it  is  said  had  no  vices  until  Chris- 
tians went  there  ;  and  that  awful  scourge  under  which  one  nation  groans,  and  by 
which  our  city  is  deeply  injured,  is  said  to  be  the  peculiar  invention  and  favorite 
of  Christian  lands.  It  will  remain  so  until  the  whole  Church  moves  from  an  ex- 
ternal history  of  religion  to  an  internal  spiritual  state,  and  makes  the  spirit  of 
Christ  the  true  test  of  discipleship,  and  the  sole  object  of  all  preaching  and  of  all 
houses  of  worship.  In  this  chapter  from  which  our  text  is  taken  it  is  affirmed 
that  "if  a  man  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  His,"  but  the  Church  has 
never  believed  it,  but  has  oflTered  heaven  to  misers  and  drunkards,  when  once  a 
year  they  have  shown  some  zeal  for  an  external  creed.  The  difficulty  in  Chris- 
tianizing India  lies  in  the  pitiable  characters  revealed  there  by  the  British  officers 
and  subjects,  all  of  whom  have  sworn  to  the  thirty-nine  articles.  The  German 
pietist  Tauler  was  right  when  he  said  Christianity  is  an  experience  within,  and 
one  thought  of  God  is  beyond  the  worth  of  the  external  world. 

The  world  has  tried  external  doctrine  to  the  most  extreme  limit.   It  has  taken 


CHRISTIANITY  A  LIFE.  86 

the  ideas  of  the  Testament,  and  has  stated  them  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  has  called 
them  everything  from  Arianism  to  Calvinism;  from  Lutherism  toWesleyism; 
from  Komanism  to  Protestantism;  from  Mysticism  to  Quakerism,  until  the  creeds 
of  the  Church  would  form  a  large  volume ;  and  yet  not  a  soul  from  the  atmosphere 
of  any  of  these  creeds  has  ever  been  anything  except  so  far  as  he  cast  himself 
simply  upon  the  spirit  of  Christ's  life,  and  suffered  that  vast  spirituality  to  separate 
him  from  his  body  of  death,  to  crush  the  law,  that  when  he  would  do  good  evil 
was  present  with  him;  and  whenever  any  soul  has  done  this,  he  has  risen  up  in  the 
same  spiritual  beauty,  whether  he  was  a  Catholic  like  Fenelon,  or  a  Methodist 
like  "Wesley,  or  a  Calvinist  like  Chalmers  ;  risen  the  same,  because  there  is  no 
rising  at  all  for  a  Christian  except  right  up  out  of  the  spirit  of  Christ.  Christianity 
is  in  man  a  "well  for  water  springing  up,"  and  hence  no  one  can  distinguish  be- 
tween the  Catholic  Massilion,  and  the  Protestant  Eobert  Hall,  because  they  camo 
not  from  an  external,  changing  creed,  but  from  the  life  of  the  Lord.  Let  our 
Bun  sink  where  it  may,  the  same  gold  gathers  about  the  West  in  Oregon  that 
hangs  out  its  banners  in  England  or  on  the  mountains  of  Asia,  because  the  atmo- 
sphere is  the  same  and  the  sun  is  the  same,  and  the  clouds  are  the  same  every- 
where ;  and  thus  true  Christians  are  all  one,  because  they  come  not  from  manifold 
doctrines,  but  they  are  the  same  soul  colored  by  the  same  Christ,  whether  he  i« 
seen  in  old  Judea  or  new  America. 

My  friends,  we  are  living  in  an  era  of  great  vices.  The  fact  that  there  are 
such  vices  so  sweeping,  vices  which  seek  the  sanction  of  law,  and  which  already 
laugh  at  the  puny  arm  of  religion,  should  make  us  doubt  whether  the  ages  of 
simple  doctrines  do  not,  by  their  failure,  invite  us  to  a  Christianity  of  life  whick 
shall  plead  for  all  reforms,  and  shall  by  education  and  a  love  of  the  dissolute  mul- 
titude which  shall  lead  us  to  espouse  whatever  will  tend  to  lift  them  above  igno- 
rance and  wickedness,  help  them  not  to  our  long  theology,  but  to  such  a  life  of 
spirituality  and  purity  and  moral  grandeur,  as  is  spread  out  before  them  in  that 
golden  page  of  Bethlehem,  To  built  up  this  "higher  life,"  in  the  multitude  let  us 
omit  nothing;  from  school  house  to  Church,  from  entreaty  to  prayer,  from  reason 
to  divine  spirit,  from  the  intercession  of  man  to  the  intercession  of  the  cross,  use  all 
not  in  the  name  of  an  external  history,  but  in  the  name  of  a  most  radical  reform: 

Our  course  is  onward,  onward  into  light. 

What  though  the  darkness  gathereth  amain  I 

Yet  to  return  or  tarry  both  are  vain. 
How  full  of  stars,  when  round  us  dark  the  night; 
Whither  return?     What  flower  yet  ever  might, 

In  days  of  gloom  and  cold  and  stormy  rain. 

Enclose  itself  in  its  green  bud  again. 
And  hide  itself  Lorn  tempest  out  of  sight?" 


A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS. 


"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." — Matthew  viz:  21. 

Spirituality  is  one  of  the  highest  stages  of  civilization,  and  therefore  comes 
latest  in  the  course  of  human  development.  Material  associations  are  the  first, 
hence  man  first  makes  up  his  language  and  his  pantheon  of  gods  out  of  the  solid 
substances  that  surround  him.  The  first  man  was  of  the  earth,  earthy  ;  the  second 
man  was  the  Lord  from  heaven.  That  is  first  which  is  natural,  and  afterward 
that  which  is  spiritual.  And  as  man  has  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  so  shall 
he  hear  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  The  first  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul,  the 
Becond  Adam  a  quickening  spirit. 

In  this  great  transition  from  the  material  to  the  spiritual,  years  are  consumed 
in  the  life  of  the  most  earnest  individual,  and  in  the  advance  of  society  in  this  path 
a  thousand  years  count  only  a  little.  The  most  sincere  heart  escapes  from  ma- 
terialism so  slowly,  and  so  slowly  resolves  itself  and  its  God  into  a  quickening 
spirit,  that  an  infinitely  long  existence  would  seem  to  be  foreshadowed  in  this 
leisurely  evolution.  To  that  which  grows  slowly  we  attribute  long  time.  The 
glacier  and  the  accumulating  shore  of  the  sea,  and  the  vast  oaks  of  the  Pacific 
slope  ask  us  to  allow  them  long  periods  in  which  to  have  developed  their  peculiar 
plan.  So  the  slowness  of  human  unfolding  asks  us  to  grant  to  the  individual  and, 
to  society  a  vast  field  called  immortality.  Instead  of  drawing  only  sadness  from 
this  tedious  march  we  also  find  in  it  an  assurance  that  there  are  many  years 
beyond. 

But  our  theme  for  the  hour  is  that  a  spiritual  religion  comes  last  in  human 
experience,  and  before  it  comes  a  religion  of  things  and  of  words.  To  offer 
things  to  God  was  earth's  first  form  of  being  religious.  The  old  temples  were 
full  of  bows,  arrows,  shields,  helmets  and  jewels  put  away  from  human  use  by  a 
solemn  gift-making  to  the  gods.  Horace  reveals  the  fact  in  one  of  his  poems  that 
the  sailor  rescued  from  drowning,  hung  up  in  the  temple  what  he  wore  on  his 
body  when  the  divinity  rescued  him  from  the  grave.  A  gift  was  the  only  known 
acknowledgment.  Different  cities  vied  with  each  other  in  making  their  gods 
rich.  "What  gold  I  what  garments,  what  jewels,  what  armor  in  the  temple  of 
Juno,  and  what  luxuries  there  were  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  1 

The  Athenians,  upon  the  eve  of  a  battle,  vowed  to  Apollo  that  if  he  would 
grant  them  success  they  would  offer  to  him  as  m.any  kids  as  there  were  slain  of 
the  enemy  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  so  bloody  was  their  success  that  the  classic 
nation  did  not  possess  flocks  enough  to  meet  the  vow  of  the  worshippers,  and  the 
state  funded,  as  it  -yere,  the  promise,  and  offered  five  hundred  a  year  through 
successive  generations. 

"Worship  was  thi^s  conducted  by  offerings.    From  baskets  of  fruits  and  flowers 


A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS.  87 

to  thousands  of  valuable  sheep  and  oxen,  gifts  were  heaped  upon  the  altars. 
At  the  dedication  of  his  temple  which  was  itself  a  costly  present  to  Jehovah,  Solo- 
mon sacrificed  twenty-two  thousand  oxen  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
sheep  as  an  offering  to  Him  who  had  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and 
out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  All  the  earth  was  covered  with  this  religion  of  gifts. 
Hindoo  and  African,  Jew  and  Gentile,  Indian  and  Eoman,  Parthian  and  Greek* 
accomplished  the  life  of  religion  by  offering  some  things  to  their  favorite  deity. 

Good  came  from  the  custom,  for,  that  spiritual  worship  is  the  highest  form  of 
religion,  does  not  make  useless  or  harmful  a  form  full  of  material  things  and 
ideas.  The  gift-making  worship  only  takes  a  second  position,  inferior,  but  not 
useless  nor  absurd.  In  Solomon's  days  not  to  offer  a  lamb  to  Jehovah  was  to  be 
an  infidel,  for  the  religious  thought  and  feeling  of  the  times  flowing  in  that  chan- 
nel, the  heart  that  made  no  offering  was  an  infidel  heart.  Each  age  has  its  own 
atheist  and  infidel  fashioned  out  of  its  own  shape  of  life.  Solomon's  vast  offerings, 
aside  from  any  relation  to  a  coming  Calvary,  were,  in  the  current  hour,  an  act 
of  religion,  just  as  an  imperfect  song  is  music  to  those  who  love  it,  or  as  a  rude 
log-hut  is  a  sweet  home  to  those,  perhaps  half-starved  and  half-clothed  children, 
who  have  lived  only  by  its  door-sill  and  its  hearth.  To  laugh  at  what  others 
possess  and  to  base  that  laugh  upon  the  superiority  of  what  is  our  own,  is  often  a 
mild  form  of  ignorance  and  self-conceit.  Each  age  has  drawn  honey  out  of  its  own 
flowers,  even  if  the  flowers  were  wild  and  of  pale  single  leaf.  A  gift  was  a  sur- 
render of  self,  a  confession  of  dependence  and  a  first  leaf  of  charity. 

The  gift-worship  at  last  passed  away.  Christ  long  borne  in  such  an  earthly 
casket  outgrew  the  narrow  confines  and  appeared  in  fullness  and  broad  liberty. 
In  Palestine,  the  religion  of  gifts  terminated  virtually  in  the  Sermon  upon  the 
Mount,  and  in  the  marvellous  spiritual  life  of  Jesus.  The  gift  of  himself  ended 
the  whole  gift  idea  by  divine  appointment,  and  by  its  excessive  grandeur,  and 
the  purely  spiritual  philosophy  of  Christ  and  His  apostles  flying  on  the  wings  of 
the  Koman  language,  and  Koman  fame  and  power,  passed  over  the  world  in  a 
circling,  rapid  flight.  All  the  ends  of  the  earth  had  felt  the  Koman  power  of 
arms,  of  letters,  of  law,  of  genius,  of  energy,  so  that  Christianity,  climbing  into 
the  chariot  of  Kome,  was  rapidly  borne  to  all  human  hearts  within  the  civilized 
empires  of  that  era.  Gifts  disappeared  from  all  the  temples,  lambs  and  oxen 
from  all  the  altars,  and  religion  began  to  resolve  itself  into  a  prayer,  and  peniten- 
tial tear,  and  a  faith  and  a  hope. 

While  property  measured  the  value  of  man  and  of  his  god,  the  surrender  of 
it  by  man  was  the  most  obvious  form  of  service,  and  the  favor  of  heaven  was 
bought  not  by  a  change  of  human  character,  but  by  a  bestowal  of  human  goods. 

With  the  uprising  af  Christ,  religion  began  to  withdraw  from  presents  to 
the  Deity  and  betake  itself  to  the  heart.  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart."  "Blessed 
are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness."  "The  hour  cometh  and 
now  is  when  the  true  worshipper  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth 
for  the  Father  seeketh  such  to  worship  Him."  "The  hour  cometh  when  ye  shall 
neither  in  this  mountain  nor  yet  in  Jerusalem  worship  the  Father." 

In  this  second  state  of  religion  a  new  heart  became  the  chief  object  to  be 
reached,  and  rewards  from  God  were  promised,  not  to  him  wlio  would  bring  richest 
presents,  but  to  him  who  would  bring  the  purest  life.  But  mankind  was  not 
ready  for  this  cardinal  idea.     At  least  mankind  will  do  nothing  hastily.     It  will 


88  A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS. 

not  pass  to  perfection  in  a  day.  It  will  not  suflfer  itself  to  be  hurried,  but,  lik« 
the  glacier,  must  have  its  own  rate  of  speed — the  inseparable  trait  of  its  charac- 
ter. No  voice  has  ever  found  instantaneous  obedience.  A  spiritual  religion 
announced  and  a  spiritual  religion  accepted  are  different  matters.  A  divine  being 
and  a  few  followers  may  announce  one,  but  the  world  is  always  far  below  the 
leading  divine  souls,  and  hence  after  heavenly  words  are  announced  it  will  con- 
tinue for  a  time  in  paths  much  like  those  of  yesterday.  A  resemblance  ia 
demanded. 

From  a  religion  of  gifts  the  world  soon  hastened  to  a  Christianity  of  words. 
"Words  were  the  outward  sign  and  in  that  the  heart  paused.  There  were  a  few 
generations  of  simple  piety  such  as  St.  John  revealed,  but  the  measurement  of 
Christianity  was  soon  found  in  the  proposition  to  which  one  was  willing  to 
subscribe. 

Words  are  the  forerunners  only  of  deeds.  They  are  heralds  that  announce  a 
coming  king,  but  the  king's  chariot  it  slow.  Hence  when  you  find  in  the  times 
of  Caesar  or  Louis  XIV.,  or  Calvin,  the  finest  statements  about  purity  and  charity, 
that  is  no  sign  that  there  was  any  public  purity  or  charity.  They  had  simply 
been  announced,  just  as  a  vessel  has  been  signaled  when  it  is  yet  far  out  at  sea, 
and  perhaps  falling  back  before  storms.  Words  precede  actions  often  by  a 
thousand  years.  And  thus  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  not  so  much  man's  law 
as  man's  prophecy.  The  world  is  grand,  not  when  a  prophecy  is  uttered,  but 
when  the  fulfillment  comes. 

Millions  were  finally  put  to  death  in  the  long  Christian  centuries  when  they 
would  not  repeat  the  words  of  the  party  in  power.  Honesty  of  life,  religious 
devotion,  prayer,  kindness  at  home,  purity  of  deed  and  thought,  counted  nothing 
If  the  regular  words  of  the  ruling  power  were  nst  pronounced.  The  most  exemp- 
lary men,  the  tenderest  mothers,  the  most  gentle  daughters,  fathers  whose 
families  were  dear  to  them  beyond  language,  were  hurried  to  the  flames  or  rack 
because  they  could  not  say  the  words  fixed  upon  by  the  pope  or  the  tyrant  in 
power.  It  was  words,  words,  words,  and  death  everywhere.  No  estimate  was 
placed  upon  the  inward  life.  Myriads  died  singing  or  praying  to  the  spiritual 
God  and  their  lives  had  been  full  of  purity. 

Elizabeth  imprisoned  for  life  all  who  conducted  religious  service  without 
using  her  Prayer  Book.  Persons  not  believing  in  bishops  were  branded  with 
an  iron.  Anabaptists  and  Arians  were  tortured  and  then  hung.  As  internal 
piety  was  little  dreamed  of  as  being  a  religious  test,  it  was  as  absent  from  man 
as  from  God.  God  was  a  being  partial  to  a  prayer-book  or  to  a  bishop.  Forms 
were  everything.  Knox  declared  that  one  mass  was  more  fearful  to  him  than  ten 
thousand  armed  enemies  landed  in  any  part  of  the  realm,  never  harboring,  for  an 
instant,  the  idea  that  beneath  the  service  of  the  mass  there  might  be  a  pious  heart. 
There  was  no  weighing  of  soul ;  it  was  all  a  listening  to  words,  and  a  crowding 
to  the  fagot  those  whose  words  deviated  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  model  held  in 
the  hand  of  some  bloated  ruler  or  licentious  priest.  In  this  awful  reign  of  iron 
eentences  little  girls  of  childhood  innocence,  and  mothers  whose  love  is  an  emblem 
to  earth  of  love  infinite,  went  down  to  early  tombs  in  the  double  agony  of  flesh 
and  heart ;  but  the  heart  of  a  dove  counted  nothing  in  an  age  of  vowels  and 
consonants.  Catholic  words  killed  thousands  of  Protestants,  and  Protestant  words 
killed  thousands  of  Catholics. 

All   imaginable   doctrines  have,  in  the  long,    bloody  period,  been   made  a 


A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS.  89 

ground  of  life  or  death.  "Words  about  baptism,  words  about  the  Trinity,  words 
about  the  pope,  words  about  transubstantiation,  words  about  the  Virgin  Mary, 
words  about  the  Eucharist,  words  about  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  about  astro- 
nomy have  exposed  the  body  to  the  stake  and  the  soul  to  perdition.  The  holiness 
of  Galileo  were  of  no  avail  if  he  taught  that  the  earth  turned  round  each  day.  It 
was  not  an  inner  belief  that  was  demanded,  but  an  outward  unity  of  dogmas 
Hence  life  was  offered  to  heretics  if  they  would  only  repeat  the  rejected  dogma. 
What  he  really  believed  was  not  a  matter  of  importance,  if  he  uttered  the  conven- 
tional creed.  No  change  of  heart  was  expected  or  thought  of,  for  the  soul  was 
not  so  much  thought  of  as  church  unity.  The  outward  orthodoxy  was  the  grand 
consideration.  Hence  when  Galileo  consented  to  the  idea  that  the  earth  does  not 
turn  and  that  the  sun  does  go  around  it,  he  descended  from  the  public  penitential 
platform  saying  in  a  whisper,  "The  earth  moves."  No  one  cared  for  his  inner 
thought  if  he  only  stood  by  the  public  words  on  the  subject. 

This  zeal  for  dogma  resulted  from  two  causes.  First  cause,  the  fact  that  man 
comes  slowly  to  a  spiritual  religion.  That  is  the  perfection  of  worship,  and  hence 
like  all  perfection  must  come  slowly  and  come  last.  To  get  away  from  the  outward 
and  to  throw  one's  whole  being  into  the  idea  that  what  God  demands  is  a  pure 
heart,  is  a  condition  of  mind  to  which  only  Christ  and  the  angels  have  yet  come. 

A  second  cause  of  the  enthronement  of  dogmas  lay  in  the  union  of  church  and 
government.  A  new  dogma  might  build  up  a  new  party,  a  new  party  might  dis- 
place the  party  or  power.  The  class  believing  the  earth  to  turn  around  might 
become  so  powerful  as  to  overthrow  the  party  that  plainly  heard  the  Bible  declare 
the  sun  to  rise  and  set,  and  that  saw  the  sun  set  every  day.  The  inner  life  of  a  mau 
was  nothing,  the  silent  belief  of  a  philosopher  was  of  no  moment,  but  the  perpe- 
tuity of  the  party  in  power,  the  long  continuance  of  power  and  incomes  was  very 
desirable,  and  hence  the  dogmas  held  by  the  party  on  the  throne  must  be  spoken  to 
the  crowd  by  all,  and  by  all  constantly  and  everywhere.  Certain  assemblages  of 
words  stood  for  the  pope.  Other  words  might  exalt  an  astronomer  or  a  Pantheist 
and  his  followers.  Thus  forgiveness  was  always  offered  a  victim  even  on  the  pile 
of  fagots  if  he  would  repeat  the  pet  ideas  of  the  church,  because  the  church  meant 
not  salvation,  so  much  as  power  and  regular  incomes  I 

In  our  own  country  it  has  been  the  sorrow  of  us  all  to  see  a  doctrine  regarding 
slavery  made  more  conspicuous,  for  a  half  century,  than  the  doctrine  of  a  pure 
life,  rendered  a  test  of  orthodoxy  not  because  of  any  iieaven  or  hell,  but  because  of 
Congress  and  patronage  and  high  and  low  caste.  Thus  in  these  two  causes — the 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  spiritual  religion  and  the  identity  of  church  and  state 
one  may  find  the  influences  that  gave  mankind  a  religion  not  of  the  soul,  but  of 
many  and  intricate,  and  often  contemptible  doctrines.  i 

That  there  are  great  doctrines,  the  obedience  of  which  is  life,  the  disobedience 
of  which  is  death,  is  very  evident.  Truth  is  the  food  of  life,  the  stuff  that  life  is 
made  of;  but  these  truths  are  few  compared  Avith  that  assemblage  of  ideas  that  can 
be  seen  on  the  bloody  field  of  history.  Each  aspirant  had  a  discrimination  of  idea 
upon  which  to  base  hope,  not  of  heaven  so  much  as  of  earth.  Certain  ideas  stood 
not  for  a  virtue,  but  for  a  party  in  the  church  or  state.  They  were  not  paths  of 
spiritual  salvation,  but  the  emblems  of  authority.  Like  the  secret  words  of  masonry, 
they  were  not  words  that  converted  a  soul,  but  words  that  stood  for  an  empire 
Morgan  was  put  to  death  not  because  the  ideas  he  uttered  were  valuable,  but  because 
they  had  been  agreed  upon  and  stood  for  a  masonic  order.  So  heretics  were  burned, 


90  A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS. 

not  because  what  they  said  interfered  with  virtue,  but  because  it  interfered  with 
some  mitre  or  crown.  A  new  idea  was  treason.  This  was  all  done  in  the  name  of 
sincerity,  for  it  was  easy  for  the  Deity,  who  had  once  been  a  Deity  of  gifts,  to 
become  one  of  dogmas.  God  became  a  Being  to  be  worshipped  with  dogmas.  A 
man  not  baptized  was  so  offensive  to  God  that  hell  was  only  too  good  a  place  for 
that  soul  I  An  infant  not  baptized  died  hopeless,  God  was  so  partial  to  baptism ! 
If  this  baptism  were  not  administered  by  the  proper  church,  it  was  still  worse  than 
no  baptism,  God  was  so  partial  to  a  particular  church  I  And  thus  onward,  until 
the  blessed  God  was  wholly  occupied  in  the  protection  of  a  hundred  forms  of  speech, 
and  the  human  soul  was  occupied,  not  with  purity  of  heart,  but  with  repeating  the 
terms  pleasing  to  the  ideal  Deity  and  the  pope.  This  pope  was  not  always  Cath- 
olic ;  sometimes  he  was  Protestant. 

Now  salvation  is  a  term  whose  meaning  depends  upon  that  which  is  lost.  "If 
one  has  lost  property,  his  salvation  will  be  the  recovery  of  that  property  or  its 
equivalent.  If  one  has  lost  his  good  name  by  false  accusation,  his  salvation  will 
be  found  in  the  emblazonment  of  the  falsehood,  and  on  the  return  of  public  good 
will.  This  man  does  not  need  much  dogma,  but  rather  he  needs  acquittal  and  a 
better  fame.  If  the  soul  has  lost  virtue  and  piety,  then  salvation  will  be  found  in 
a  return  to  piety  and  purity,  and  the  truths  of  salvation  will  be  those  that  lead  him 
to  that  one  result.  This  is  the  destiny  of  Christ's  mediation.  Hence  the  essence 
of  religion  is  found  in  the  one  event  or  phenomenon,  a  righteous  heart.  Gifts  to 
the  Deity  were  the  infant  creepings  of  religion,  the  shadow  of  a  coming  reality, 
the  manifestations  of  an  incipient  love  that  did  not  know  how  to  express  itself. 
Not  knowing  that  what  God  most  wished  was  a  pure  heart  in  His  children,  they 
loaded  His  temples  with  their  jewels  and  raiment,  and  His  altars  with  their  lambs. 

Then  came  the  days  that  brought  God  an  offering  of  words.  Imagining  Him 
to  be  a  God  of  articles  and  forms,  they  repeated  thousands  of  words  and  baptized 
their  guilty  foreheads  in  much  or  little  water  as  an  act  of  salvation. 

And  now  the  world  awaits  the  last  transfiguration  of  human  worship,  into  a 
spiritual  condition,  into  a  soul  lifted  above  sin,  and  exulting  in  a  nearness  to  the 
image  of  God.  The  nations  await  with  tears  of  past  sorrow,  a  religion  that  shall 
indeed  baptize  men  and  children,  either  or  both,  but  counting  this  as  only  a  beauti- 
ful form,  shall  take  the  souls  of  men  into  the  atmosphere  of  Jesus,  and  into  the  all- 
pervading  presence  of  God,  and  detain  them  there,  until  sin  shall  have  become  a 
hated  monster,  and  perfection  of  spirit  the  heaven  of  this  life,  and  that  to  come. 
Terms  must  give  place  to  righteousness  and  communion  with  God. 

In  our  day  the  empire  of  words  still  lingers.  The  churches  are  still  wedded 
to  quantity  more  than  to  quality,  but  wedded  by  bonds  that  are  growing  weaker 
under  the  uprising  of  the  "inner  life"  philosophy.  The  churches  still  eagerly  keep 
count  of  their  membership,  and  publish  the  members  that  joined  their  bodies  last 
year,  but  keep  no  record  of  the  number  of  Christians  that  lived  dishonorable  lives 
in  the  last  decade,  quantity  rather  than  quality  still  being  a  ruling  passion  in  our 
half-civilized  world.  But  Jesus  Christ  was  not  gifts,  nor  words,  nor  quantity, 
but  quality ;  and  surely  as  the  world  shall  last,  mankind,  under  His  leadership 
shall  march  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  world  of  spirit,  where  quantity  and  words 
shall  all  be  ovcrvdielmed  by  the  sweet  music,  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart." 

If  Christ  was  anything.  He  was  spiritual  perfection.  He  was  not  a  voice 
saying  "Lord,  Lord,"  but  He  was  a  spotless  soul.  Hence  the  world  coming  up  to 
His  religion,  at  last,  will  find  itself  in  an  atmosphere  not  full  of  the  tenets  of 


A  RELIGION  OF  WORDS.  91 

Elizabeth,  or  Mary,  or  Calvin,  but  fall  of  that  transcendent  whiteness  that  indi- 
cates that  sin  has  been  washed  away  and  that  the  righteousness  of  Heaven  has  come 
to  the  heart,  like  a  joyous  morning  in  paradise. 

In  this  coming  era  upon  whose  margin  I  do  feel  that  the  world  is  standing 
now,  like  Florida  upon  the  border  of  flowery  spring,  our  citizens,  our  fathers,  our 
brothers,  our  friends,  our  children,  will  remove  before  us,  not  with  conventional 
words  upon  their  lips,  but  with  faces  radiant  with  the  consciousness  of  a  nobler 
life.  The  good  deeds  of  yesterday,  the  good  deeds  of  to-day,  the  perfected  goodness 
of  the  morrow,  a  deep  love  for  man,  a  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God  will 
fill  the  whole  face  with  a  nobleness  and  happiness  to  which  earth  has  thus  far  been 
willingly  a  stranger.     This  will  be  a  salvation,  and  Christ  will  be  a  Saviour. 

And  as  for  those  dear  ones,  who  in  the  long  past  have  died  because  of  words, 
the  Covenanter  children,  whose  parents  were  burned  before  their  eyes  in  fires  of 
agony  and  orphanage;  the  Quakers,  flying  before  the  vengeance  of  outraged 
dogmas  ;  the  Catholics  murdered  because  they  looked  toward  Jesus  through  some 
symbol,  will  all  come  back  to  a  spirit-shore,  where  Christ  will  know  His  children 
by  the  golden  thread  of  love  in  their  hearts  and  where  no  fallible  human  judgment 
can  ever  come  to  separate  a  Christian  soul  from  the  realm  of  perfect  liberty, 
perfect  justice,  and  perfect  happiness.  Man  as  a  ruler,  as  a  tyrant,  has  perished. 
He  lives  only  as  a  brother.  The  dominion  and  power  have  returned  to  the  Infinite 
One — infinite  in  tenderness. 


CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS 


IN  THE  CASE  OP 


PROF.  F.  L.  PATTON   vs.  PROF.  DAVID  SWING. 


CHARGE  FIRST. 

Kev.  David  Swing  being  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  a  member  of  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago,  has  not  been 
zealous  and  faithful  in  maintaining  the  truths  of  the  gospel ;  and  has  not  been 
faithful  and  diligent  in  the  exercise  of  the  public  duties  of  his  office  as  such  minister. 

SPECIFICATION  FIKST. 

He  is  in  the  habit  of  using  equivocal  language  in  respect  to  fundamental 
doctrines,  to  the  manifest  injury  of  his  reputation  as  a  Christian  minister,  and  to 
the  injury  of  the  cause  of  Christ;  that  is  to  say,  in  sundry  sermons  printed  in  the 
Chicago  Pulpit,  and  in  sundry  other  sermons  printed  in  the  Alliance  news- 
paper, and  also  in  sundry  other  sermons  printed  in  a  volume  entitled  "Trutha 
for  To-day,"  said  sermons  all  purporting  to  have  been  preached  by  him,  the  re- 
ferences to  one  or  more  of  the  following  doctrines,  to  wit:  the  person  of  our  Lord, 
reo-eneration,  salvation  by  Christ,  eternal  punishment,  the  personality  of  the 
Spirit,  the  Trinity,  and  the  fall  of  man  ;  are  expressed  in  vague  and  ambiguous 
language ;  that  said  references  admit  easily  of  construction  in  accordance  with  the 
theology  of  the  Unitarian  denomination ;  that  they  contain  no  distinct  and 
unequivocal  affirmations  of  these  doctrines  as  they  are  held  by  all  evangelical 

churches. 

SPECIFICATION  SECOND. 

That  the  effect  of  these  vague  and  ambiguous  statements  has  been  to  cause 
grave  doubts  to  be  entertained  by  some  of  Mr.  Swing's  ministerial  brethren, 
respecting  his  position  in  relation  to  the  aforesaid  doctrines,  that  leading  Unitarian 
ministers,  to  wit:  Eev.  K.  Laird  Collier,  and  Piev.  J.  Minot  Savage,  have  affirmed 
that  his  preaching  is  substantially  Unitarian  ;  that  Mr.  Swing,  knowing  that  he  is 
claimed  by  Unitarians  as  in  substantial  accord  with  them,  and  of  the  doubts 
existing  as  aforesaid,  and  moreover,  having  his  attention  called  in  private  inter- 
views to  the  ambiguity  and  vagueness  of  his  phraseology  has  neglected  to  preach 
the  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  Deity,  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  of  Justification  by 
Faith  alone,  and  of  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked. 

SPECIFICATION  THIRD. 

He  has  manifested  a  culpable  disregard  of  the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity 
by  giving  the  weight  of  his  influence  to  the  Unitarian  denomination,  and  by  the 
unworthy  and  extravagant  laudation  in  the  pulpit,  and  through  the  press,  of  John 


CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS.  93 

8tu»rt  Mill,  a  man  who  was  known  not  to  have  helieved  in  the  Christian  religion; 
that  is  to  say,  that  some  time  in  the  past  winter,  and  durine:  successive  days  he 
was  advertized  to  lecture  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  aid  of  a  Unitarian  chapel,  and 
that  he  did  lecture  in  aid  of  said  chapel,  and  in  doing  so  aided  in  the  promulgation 
of  the  heresy  which  denies  the  Deity  of  our  blessed  Lord  ;  that  in  an  article  written 
by  him,  and  published  over  his  name  in  the  periodical  called  the  Lakeside 
Monthly,  bearing  date,  October,  1873,  and  entitled  "The  Chicago  of  the  Christian," 
a  passage  occurs,  which,  taken  in  its  plain  and  obvious  sense,  teaches  that  Robert 
Oollyer,  a  Unitarian  minister,  and  Kobert  Patterson,  a  Presbyterian  minister, 
preach  substantially  the  same  gospel,  that  the  gospel,  meaning  the  Christian 
religion,  is  mutable,  and  may  be  modified  by  circumstances  of  time  and  place,  that 
the  "local  gospel,"  meaning  the  gospel  of  Chicago,  is  a  "mode  of  virtue"  rather 
than  a  "jumble  of  doctrines,"  and  moreover,  that  on  the  Sabbath  following  the 
death  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  a  well-known  Atheist,  Mr.  Swing  preached  a  sermon 
in  reference  to  Mr.  Mill,  the  natural  effect  of  which  would  bo  to  mislead  and 
injure  his  bearers  by  producing  in  them  a  false  charity  for  fundamental  error. 

SPECIFICATION  FOURTH. 

In  the  sermons  aforesaid,  language  is  employed  which  is  derogatory  to  the 
standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  or  to  one  or  more  of  the  doctrines  of  said 
Church,  and  which  is  calculated  to  foster  indiflference  to  truth,  and  to  produce 
contempt  for  the  doctrines  of  our  Church  :  that  is  to  say,  that  he  has  at  sundry 
times  spoken  disparagingly  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  Predestination,  the 
Person  of  Christ,  Baptism,  the  Christian  Ministry,  and  Vicarious  Sacrifice.  That 
by  insinuation,  ridicule,  irony,  and  misrepresentation,  he  has  referred  to  the 
doctrines  of  our  Church  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  he  does  not  value  them  ; 
and  that  by  placing  in  juxtaposition  true  doctrines  and  false  minor  points  in 
theology  and  cardinal  doctrines  of  evangelical  religion,  he  has  treated  some  of  the 
most  precious  doctrines  of  our  religion  with  contempt.  The  reference  is  partic- 
ularly to  sermons  entitled  "Soul  Culture,"  "St.  Paul  and  the  Golden  Age," 
"Salvation  and  Morality,"  "Value  of  Yesterday,"  "Influence  of  Democracy  on 
Christian  Doctrine,"  "Variation  of  Moral  Motive,"  "  A  Eeligion  of  Words,"  all 
published  in  the  Chicago  Pulpit,  and  to  "Eeligious  Toleration,"  "Christianity 
and  Dogma,"  "Faith,"  "The  Great  Debate,"  "Christianity  as  a  Civilization," 
published  in  " Truths  for  To- Day,"  and  in  the  sermons  entitled  "The  Decline  of 
Vice,"  "Christianity  a  Life,"  and  a  "Missionary  Eeligion,"  published  in  the 
Alliance  newspaper.  The  following  passage  illustrates  the  allegation  :  "Over  the 
idea  that  two  and  two  make  four  no  blood  has  been  shed ;  but  over  the  insinuation 
that  three  may  be  one,  or  one  three,  there  has  often  betn  a  demand  for  external 
influence  to  brace  up  for  the  work  the  frail  logical  faculty.  It  is  probable  that  no 
man  has  ever  been  put  to  death  for  heresy  regarding  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
Its  declarations  demand  no  tortures  to  aid  human  faith ;  but  when  a  church  comes 
along  with  its  'legitimacy,'  or  with  its  Five  Points,  or  with  its  Prayer  Book,  or 
its  Infant  Baptism,  or  Eternal  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  then  comes  the 
demand  for  the  rack  and  the  stake  to  make  up  in  terrorism  what  is  wanting  in 
evidence." 

•      SPECIFICATION  FIFTH." 

Being  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  preaching  regularly  to  the 
Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  city,  he  has  omitted  to  preach  in  his  sermons 
the  doctrines  commonly  known  as  evangelical — that  is  to  say,  in  particular,  he 
omits  to  preach  or  teach  one  or  more  of  the  doctrines  indicated  in  the  following 


94  CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS. 

statements  of  Scripture,  namely:  that  Christ  is  a  "propitiation  for  our  sins,"  that 
we  have  "  redemption  through  His  blood,"  that  we  are  "justified  by  faith,"  that 
*',there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  we  may  be 
saved."  That  Jesus  is  "equal  with  God,"  and  is  "God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  that 
"all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  and  that  "the  wicked  shall  go  away 
into  everlasting  punishment." 

SPECIFICATION  SIXTH. 

He  declares  that  the  value  of  a  doctrine  is  measured  by  the  ability  of  men  to 
verify  it  in  their  experience ;  in  illustrating  this  statement,  he  has  spoken  lightly 
of  important  doctrines  of  the  Bible :  that  is  to  say,  that  in  a  sermon  entitled 
"Christianity  and  Dogma,"  printed  in  the  volume  called  "Truths  for  To-Day,"  the 
following  and  similar  language  is  used :  "The  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  thos« 
which  may  be  tried  by  the  human  heart."  "The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  for- 
mally stated  cannot  be  experienced.  Man  has  not  the  power  to  taste  the  oneness 
of  three,  nor  the  threeness  of  one,  and  see  that  it  is  'good.'  "  "  If  you,  my  friend, 
are  giving  your  daily  thought  to  the  facts  of  Christianity,  and  are  standing  bewild- 
ered to-day  amid  the  statenients^of  science  and  Genesis  about  earth,  or  its  swarmi 
of  life,  recall  the  truth  that  your  soul  cannot  taste  any  theory  of  man's  origin — 
cannot  experience  the  origin  of  man,  whatever  that  origin  may  have  been." 

SPECIFICATION  SEVENTH. 

In  the  sermons  entitled,  respectively,  "Old  Testament  Inspiration"  and  "The 
Value  of  Yesterday,"  published  in  the  Chicago  Pulpit,  and  in  sermons  entitled 
"Kighteousness,"  "Faith,"  "The  Great  Debate,"  printed  in  "Truths  for  To-day;" 
also  in  the  "Decline  of  Vice,"  printed  in  the  Alliance,  he  has  used  language  which, 
taken  in  its  plain  and  obvious  sense,  inculcates  a  phase  of  the  doctrine  commonly 
known  as  "Evolution"  or  "Development:"  that  is  to  say,  he  uses  the  following 
and  similar  language:  "Low  idolatry  of  primitive  man,"  meaning  Adam.  "The 
Bible  has  not  made  religion,  but  religion  and  righteousness  have  made  the  Bible. 
Christianity  is  not  forced  upon  us ;  our  own  nature  has  forced  it  up  out  of  the  spir- 
it's rich  depths."  "The  Mosaic  Economy  was  nothing  else  but  a  progress ;  earth 
had  come  to  Polytheism,  to  Pantheism,  to  Feticism.  It  was  the  Hebrew  philosophy 
and  its  immediate  result  Christianity,  which  swept  away  the  iron  Jupiter."  "This 
multitude  measures  a  great  revelation  of  God  above  that  day  when  earth  possessed 
but  one  man  or  family,  and  that  one  without  language  and  without  learning  and 
without  virtue."  "In  the  first  human  being  God  could  no  more  display  His  per- 
fections, than  a  musician  like  Mozart  could  unfold  his  genius  to  an  infant,  or  to  a 
South  Sea  Islander."  These  passages  conflict  with  the  Confession  of  Faith,  chap, 
viii.  §  1 ;  chap.  vii.  §  3,  4,  5 ;  chap.  iv.  §  2. 

SPECIFICATION  EIGHTH. 

In  a  sermon  entitled  "  Influence  of  Democracy  on  Christian  Doctrine,"  pub- 
lished in  the  "Chicago  Pulpit,"  and  preached  April  20,  1873,  he  has  made  false 
and  dangerous  statements  regarding  the  standards  of  faith  and  practice :  that  is  to 
say  :  he  uses  the  following  and  similar  language :  "When  we  come  to  moral  ideas, 
we  are  compelled  to  do  without  any  standards  :"  "You  may,  my  friends,  at  your 
leisure,  seek  and  find  further  instances  of  this  modification  of  Christian  belief  by 
the  new  surroundings  of  government.  Christian  customs  will  also  be  modified 
along  with  the  creed."  "  In  this  casting  oflT  of  old  garments,  it  no  more  cheerfully 
throws  away  the  inconceivable  of  Christianity  than  the  inconceivable  of  Kant  and 


CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS.  95 

Spinoza."  "In  this  abandonment  there  is  no  charge  of  falsehood  cast  upon  the  old 
mysteries  ;  they  may  or  may  not  be  true  ;  there  is  only  a  passing  them  by  as  not 
being  in  the  line  of  the  current  -wish  or  taste ;  raiment  for  a  past  age,  perhaps  for 
a  future,  but  not  acceptable  for  the  present." 

SPECIFICATION  NINTH. 

He  has  given  his  approval,  in  the  pulpit,  to  the  doctrine  commonly  known  as 
Sabellianism,  or  a  Modal  Trinity  :  and  has  spoken  slightingly  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  as  taught  in  the  standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  :  (Confession 
of  Faith,  chapter  2,  §3):  that  is  to  say:  in  the  volume  "Truths  for  To-day,"  he 
uses  the  following  and  similar  language :  "But  the  moment  he  (Jesus)  has  uttered 
our  text, — that  "  Those  which  man  can  subject  to  experience,  are  the  doctrines 
that  be  of  God,"  reason  rises  up  and  unites  its  voice  with  that  of  simple  authority. 
The  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  those  which  may  be  tried  by  the  human  heart." 
"  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  formally  stated,  cannot  be  experienced.  Man  has 
not  the  power  to  taste  the  threeness  of  one,  nor  the  oneness  of  three,  and  see  that 
it  is  "  good.  "  "  Hence,  Christianity  bears  readily  the  idea  of  three  offices,  and 
permits  the  one  God  to  appear  in  Father,  or  in  Son,  or  in  Spirit. 

SPECIFICATION  TENTH. 

In  the  sermons  entitled,  respectively,  "The  Great  Debate,"  and  "Positive 
Religion,"  printed  in  the  volume  called  "  Truths  for  To-day,"  false  and  dangerous 
statements  are  made  respecting  our  knowledge  regarding  the  Being  and  attributes 
of  God  :  that  is  to  say,  that  the  following  and  similar  language  is  used  :  "  When 
Logic  informs  you  and  me  that  God  is  a  law,  or  a  wide-spread  blind  agency,  let  us 
not  be  deceived,  for  all  it  has  done  is  to  take  away  our  God."  "Perfect  assurance 
is  just  as  impossible  to  a  free  religionist  or  atheist,  as  it  is  to  the  Christian.  Ee- 
membering,  therefore,  that  there  is  no  moral  idea  of  beauty  or  love  or  soul  that 
may  not  be  denied,  and  remembering,  too,  that  the  assurance  that  there  is  a  God 
is  always  logically  equal  to  the  oppo-helief."  "We  know  not  what  nor  where  is 
our  God,  our  heaven."     (Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  ii.  §1  and  chap,  ii.) 

SPECIFICATION  ELEVENTH. 

In  a  sermon  entitled  "  A  Eeligion  of  Words,"  published  in  the  Chicago  Pulpit, 
and  in  the  sermon  entitled  Eeligious  Toleration,  he  uses  language  in  regard  to  the 
Sacrament  of  Baptism  inconsistent  with  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  (see  Confession  of  Faith,  chap,  xxvii.  §1,  2,  3,  4,  and  chap,  xxviii.  gl,  5); 
that  is  to  say,  he  speaks  flippantly  of  infant  baptism,  and,  in  the  sermon  above 
mentioned,  uses  the  following  words:  "The  nations  await,  with  tears  of  past 
sorrow,  a  religion,  that  shall,  indeed  baptize  men  and  children,  either  or  both,  but 
counting  this  as  only  a  beautiful  form,  shall  take  the  souls  of  men  into  the 
atmosphere  of  Jesus,"  etc. 

SPECIFICATION  TWELFTH. 

He  has  used  language  in  respect  to  Penelope  and  Socrates,  which  is  unwarrant- 
able and  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  x.  §4,  that  is 
to  say,  that  in  his  sermon,  entitled  "  Soul  Culture,"  the  following  passage  occurs  : 
"  There  is  no  doubt  the  notorious  Catherine  II.  held  more  truth  and  better  truth 
than  was  known  to  all  classic  Greece — held  to  a  belief  in  a  Saviour,  of  whose  glory 
that  gifted  knew  nought ;  yet,  such  the  grandeur  of  soul  above  mind  that  I  doubt 
not  that  Queen  Penelope  of  the  dark  land  and  the  doubting  Socrates  have  received 


96  CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS. 

at  Heaven's  gate  a  sweeter  welcome  than  greeted  the  ear  of  Kussia's  brilliant  but 
false  lived  queen." 

SPECIFICATION  THIKTEENTH. 

In  a  sermon  printed  on  or  about  15th  September,  1872,  from  11  Peter  iii.  9,  he 
made  use  of  loose  and  unguarded  language,  respecting  the  Providence  of  C^. 

SPECIFICATION  FOURTEENTH. 

In  a  sermon  preached  at  installation  of  Eev.  Arthur  Swazey,  D.  D.,  as  pastor 
of  the  Ashland  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago,  and  previously  preached 
about  January,  1872,  in  Standard  Hall,  Chicago,  he  repudiated  the  idea  of  a  call 
to  the  ministry,  and  taught  that  an  office  of  the  ministry  like  the  profession  of  law 
and  medicine,  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  circumstances ;  that  is  to  say,  he  said  in 
substance,  that  the  merchant  is  called  to  his  business,  the  lawyer  to  his  profession, 
just  as  much  as  the  minister  to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  other  statements 
contradicted  the  teaching  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  in  chap.  xxv.  §3,  and  Form 
of  Government,  chap.  i.  §3.  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  xxx.  |1  and  2.  Confession 
of  Faith,  chap,  xxvii.  g4:  chap.  vii.  §4..  chap.  xxix.  ^3. 

SPECIFICATION  FIFTEENTH. 

He  has  made  false  and  misleading  statements  respecting  the  Old  Testament 
sacrifices;  that  is  to  say,  that  in  the  sermon,  entitled  "A  Eeligion  of  Words,"  he 
speaks  of  the  aforesaid  sacrifices,  as  "gift  worship,"  and  uses  the  following  and 
similar  language :  "Gifts  to  the  Deity  were  the  infant  creepings  of  religion;  the 
shadow  of  a  coming  reality,  the  manifesting  of  an  incipient  love  that  did  not 
know  how  to  express  itself.  Not  knowing  that  what  God  most  wished,  was  a 
pure  heart  in  His  children,  they  loaded  His  temples  with  their  jewels  and  raiment, 
and  His  altars  with  their  lambs."  See  Confession  of  Faith:  chap.  vii.  §5: 
chap.  viii.  §4:  chap.  xiv.  §3.     Larger  Catechism,  art.  34. 

SPECIFICATION  SIXTEENTH. 

In  the  sermons  aforesaid,  religion  is  represented  in  the  form  of  a  mysticism, 
which  undervalues  the  evidences  of  revealed  religion,  and  is  indiflPerent  to  the 
distinguishing  doctrines  of  Christianity ;  that  is  to  say,  that  in  the  sermon  preached 
on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  above  referred  to,  and  in  the 
sermon  called  "Positive  Religion,"  printed  in  "Truths  for  To-day;"  also  in  the 
sermon,  entitled  "The  Decline  of  Vice,"  printed  in  the  Alliance  newspaper  ;  and 
in  the  volume,  called  "Truths  for  To-day,"  the  following  and  similar  language 
occurs:  "That  Mr.  Mill  did  not  accept  the  orthodox  creed  is  not  what  a  liberal 
world  need  regret  the  most,  but  that  he  revealed  little  of  the  religious  sentiment 
and  hope,  is  what  we  must  confess  to  be  a  shadow  upon  his  memory."  "Victor 
Cousin  of  France  was  the  rival  of  Stuart  Mill  in  wisdom,  in  genius,  in  intellect; 
and  so  Guizot.  These  three  were  similar  and  strikingly  great.  But  the  two  latter 
possessed  the  power  of  sentiment.  That  golden  atmosphere  of  love  and  hope,  that 
hangs  around  religion,  enveloped  Victor  Cousin  in  its  life-giving  folds.  Setting 
out  from  the  same  points  of  thought,  Cousin  always  came  up  to  God  and  heaven, 
and  Mr.  Mill  to  the  practical  of  this  life ;  to  the  happiness  of  man  here  and  then 
paused," 

SPECIFICATION  SEVENTEENTH. 

In  the  sermons  aforesaid,  he  employs  the  words  used  to  indicate  the  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  in  an  unscriptural  sense,  and  in  a  sense  different  from  that  in  which 


CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS.  97 

they  are  used  by  the  evangelical  churches  in  general,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  particular  ;  that  is  to  say,  that  he  so  uses  such  words  as  "regeneration,"  "con- 
version," "repentance,"  "Divine,"  "justification,"  "new  hearl,"  "salvation," 
"Saviour." 

SPECIFICATION  EIGHTEENTH. 

He,  in  effect,  denies  the  judicial  nature  of  the  condemnation  of  the  lost,  as 
taught  in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  iv.  ^4,  chap,  xxxiii.  Shorter  Catechism 
chap.  lix.  art.  84;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  sermons,  entitled  "Faith  and  Christianity 
and  Dogma,''  printed  in  the  volume,  called  "Truths  for  To-Day,"  he  uses  the  fol- 
lowing and  similar  language:  "The  least  trace  of  infidelity  lessens  the  activity  j 
unbelief  brings  all  to  a  halt,  and  damns  the  soul,  not  by  arbitrary  decree,  but  by 
actually  arresting  the  best  flow  of  its  life.  Unbelief  is  not  an  arbitrary  but  a 
natural  damnation." 

SPECIFICATION  NINETEENTH. 
He  teaches  that  faith  saves,  because  it  leads  to  holy  life ;  that  salvation  by 
faith  is  not  peculiar  to  Christianity ;  that  salvation  is  a  matter  of  degree,  and  that 
the  supremacy  of  faith  in  salvation  arises  out  of  the  fact  that  it  goes  further  than 
other  Christian  graces  towards  making  men  holy,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  sermons 
entitled,  "Faith,"  printed  in  the  volume  called  "Truths  for  to-day,"  the  following 
and  similar  language  occurs :  "Faith  in  Christ  is  a  rich  soil,  out  of  which  Kio-ht- 
eousness  is  a  gorgeous  bloom."  "If  there  were  enough  truth— truth  of  morals  and 
redemption  in  the  Mohammedan  or  Buddhist  system  to  save  the  soul — faith  would 
be  the  law  of  salvation  within  these  systems."  "Salvation  by  faith  is  not  a  cre- 
ation or  invention  of  the  New  Testament,  but  is  a  law  that  has  pushed  its  way  up 
into  the  New  Testament  from  the  realm  without."  "No  other  grace  could  so  save 
the  soul.  Charity  may  do  much.  It  softens  the  heart,  and  drags  along  a  train  of 
virtues ;  but  it  is  limited  by  the  horizon  of  this  life.  Voltaire  and  Paine  were  both 
beautiful  in  charity  toward  the  poor,  but  that  virtue  seems  inadequate  ;  and,  of  the 
highest  form  of  charity,  a  religious  faith  is  the  best  cause,  and  hence  charity  must 
take  the  place,  not  of  a  leader,  but  of  one  that  is  led.  Even  penitence  is  a  poor 
•saving  grace,'  compared  with  faith."    See  Confession  of  Faith,  chaps,  xi.  xvi. 

SPECIFICATION  TWENTIETH. 

He  teaches  that  men  are  saved  by  works;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  sermons 
entitled  "Good  Works,"  "The  Value  of  Yesterday,"  "A  Eeligion  of  Words  "  the 
following  and  similar  language  occurs  :  "There  is  nothing  society  so  much  needs 
to-day  as  not  Divine  righteousness  but  human  righteousness."  Heaven  is  a  heif'ht 
to  which  men  climb  on  the  deeds  of  this  life."  "Coming  to  the  grave,  he  only  can 
look  forward  with  joy  who  can  sweetly  look  back."  "The  good  deeds  of  yesterday 
the  good  deeds  of  to-day,  the  perfected  goodness  of  to-morrow,  a  deep  love  for 
man,  a  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God,  will  fill  the  whole  place  with  a  noble- 
ness and  happiness  to  which  earth  has  thus  far  been  willingly  a  stranger.  This 
will  be  a  salvation,  and  Christ  will  be  a  Saviour.  (Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  li.  gl4.) 

SPECIFICATION  TWENTY-FIKST. 
He  denies  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith,  as  held  by  the  Eeformed 
Churches,  and  taught  in  the  Westminster  confession  of  Faith;  Chapter  xi.,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  sermon  entitled  "Good  Works,"  he  uses  the  following  and  similar 
language:  "Works,  that  is,  result — a  new  life— are  the  destiny  of  faith,  the  reason 
of  its  wonderful  play  of  light  on  the  religious  horizon.  Faith,  as  a  belief  and  a 
friendship,  is  good,  so  far  as  it  bears  the  soul  to  this  moral  perfection." 


98  CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS. 

SPECIFICATION  TWENTY-SECOND. 

In  the  sermon  aforesaid  misrepresents  the  doctrinal  views  of  those  who  believe 
in  Justification  by  Faith  alone,  by  using  language  which  is  calculated  to  produce 
the  impression  that  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  aforesaid,  divorce  faith  from 
morals,  and  believe  that  man  may  be  saved  by  an  intellectual  assent  to  a  creed 
without  regard  to  personal  character. 

SPECIFICATION  TWENTY-THIRD. 

He  has  spoken  of  the  Bible,  or  portions  thereof,  in  terms  which  involve  a 
denial  of  its  plenary  inspiration  as  held  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  taught  in 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Chapter  I,  and  also  in  the  following  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture, (2  Tim.  iii.  16.  Acts  i.  16-20,)  that  is  to  say,  in  a  sermon  entitled  "Old  Testa- 
ment Inspiration,"  and  in  sundry  articles  written  by  him  and  printed  in  The 
Intekior  newspaper,  he  refers  to  the  109th  Psalm  as  a  "battle  song,"  as  the  "good 
of  an  hour,"  "a  revenge";  and  in  an  article  printed  in  Thh  Intekioe,  September 
18,  1873,  houses  the  following  and  similar  language:  "The  prominence  given  to  the 
109th  Psalm  in  my  remarks  arises  only  from  the  fact  that  it  has  long  been  a  public 
test  of  the  value  of  any  given  theory  of  inspiration.  This  is  one  of  the  places  at 
which  the  rational  world  asks  us  to  pause  and  apply  our  abundant  and  boastful 
words.  Most  of  the  young  men,  even  in  the  Presbyterian  church,  know  what  the 
historian  Froude  said  of  this  Psalm  a  few  years  since:  'Those  who  accept  the 
109th  Psalm  as  the  word  of  God,  are  already  far  on  their  way  toward  auto-da-fes 
and  massacre  of  the  St.  Bartholomew,'  and  while  they  may,  for  a  time,  reject  these 
words,  they  will  soon  demand  a  theory  of  inspiration  very  different  from  the 
indefinite  admiration  of  the  past. 

SPECIFICATION  TWENTY-FOURTH. 

He  has  spoken  of  the  Bible,  or  portions  thereof  in  terms  which  involve  a 
denial  of  its  infallibility,  and  which  tend  to  shake  the  confidence  of  men  in  its 
divine  authority — as  taught  in  Confession  of  Faith,  Chapter  I,  that  is  to  say,  in 
the  sermon  on  "Old  Testament  Inspiration,"  the  following  passage  occurs  :  "There 
is,  it  seems  to  me,  no  other  conceivable  method  of  treating  the  Old  Testament  than 
that  found  in  the  word  eclecticism.  We  must  seek  out  its  permanent  truths, 
follow  its  central  idea,  and  love  them  the  more  because  they  were  eliminated 
from  the  barbaric  ages  with  so  much  sorrow  and  bloodshed."  Moreover,  in 
the  article  in  The  Interior  above  mentioned,  he  says  that  "Christ  declared 
the  Ten  Commandments  defective;"  also,  in  an  article  v/ritten  by  him  and 
printed  in  The  Interior,  September  4,  1873,  he  speaks  of  "battles" — mean- 
ing the  battles  of  the  Israelites — engaged  in  with  the  approval  and  by  the 
command  of  Jehovah,  "that  surpassed  in  cruelty  those  of  Julius  Caesar."  He 
also  teaches  that  the  Mosaic  legislation  was  cruel  and  unjust,  and  uses  the 
following  and  similar  language :  "If  David's  personal  character  had  been  pre- 
ceded by  generations  which  dripped  in  blood,  by  generations  which  punished  over 
thirty  forms  of  ofTences  with  death,  by  generations  which  slew  women  and  child- 
ren, by  generations  which  punished  impurity  by  a  fine  of  one  animal  from  the 
flock ;  and,  if  reared  in  such  an  atmosphere,  David  sent  Uriah  to  the  front  and 
thus  secured  Uriah's  beauteous  wife,  one  certainly  should  not  attribute  this  immor- 
ality to  any  lack  of  revelation,  indeed,  but  rather  to  an  absence  of  that  quality  of 
revelation  found  afterwards  in  the  morals  of  Jesus."  Moreover,  in  an  article 
written  by  him  and  printed  in  the  periodical  known  as  the  "Sunday  School 
Teacher,"  and  bearing  date  July,  1873,  he  uses  the  following  and  similar  Ian- 


CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS.  99 

guage.  And  moreover,  in  a  sermon  entitled  "St.  John,"  printed  in  the  volume 
called  "Truths  for  To-day,"  he  uses  the  following  and  similar  language:  "There 
are  no  prophecies  of  literal  events  in  the  Apocalypse  any  more  than  there  is  in 
Tasso,  or  Tennyson,  or  "Whittier."  *  *  *  "For  us  to  inquire  the  meaning  of 
the  seven  seals,  and  to  enquire  whether  Kome  he  not  the  'Bahylon,'  would  be  for 
us  to  seek  the  'Deserted  Village'  of  Goldsmith  or  the  'Beulah  Land'  of  John 
Bunyan." 

The  foregoing  charge  with  its  specifications  may  be  proved  by  the  printed  ser- 
mons and  articles  of  Mr.  Swing  as  above  mentioned,  and  by  the  testimony  of  the 
following  witnesses : 

Oliver  H.  Lee,  Horace  A.  Hurlburt,  William  C.  Gray,  Charles  M.  Howe, 
Leonard  Swett,  Wm.  C.  Ewing,  Mr.  McClurg,  (of  Jansen,  McClurg  &  Co.,)  Messrs. 
"Carpenter  and  Sheldon,"  Eev.  "W.  C.  Young,  Kev.  J.  B.  McClure,  Kev.  K,  K, 
Wharton,  Rev.  C.  L.  Thompson,  Eev.  E.   Laird  Collier,  Eev.  J.  Minot  Savage, 

C.  O.  Waters,  Eev.  Arthur  Swazey,  D.  D.,  F.  A.  Eiddle,  Rev.  E.  W.  Patterson, 

D.  D.,  A.  D.  Pence,  John  McLandburg,  Eev.  Eobert  Collyer,  Henry  G.  Miller, 
William  C.  Goudy,  Eev.  J.  H.  Trowbridge. 

CHARGE  SECOND. 

Eev.  David  Swing,  being  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  a  member  of  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago,  does  not  sincerely 
receive  and  adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  this  Church  as  containing  the  system 
of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

SPECIFICATION  FIEST. 

Since  he  began  to  minister  to  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  he  has  declared 
to  the  Eev.  Eobert  Laird  Collier,  a  Unitarian  minister  in  charge  of  the  Church 
of  the  Messiah,  in  Chicago,  in  substance,  that  he  agreed  with  him.  Collier,  in  his 
theological  views,  but  thought  it  best  to  remain  as  he  was  for  the  time,  as  he 
could  thereby  accomplish  more  good  for  the  cause. 

SPECIFICATION  SECOND. 

He  does  not  accept  and  believe  doctrines  contained  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
viz. :  the  doctrines  commonly  known  as  Predestination,  the  Perseverance  of  the 
Saints,  and  Depravity,  as  appears  from  the  sermons  above  referred  to,  and  the 
testimony  of  Geo.  A.  Shufeldt,  Esq. 

SPECIFICATION  THIED. 

He  has  declared,  in  a  letter  to  George  A.  Shufeldt,  Esq.,  since  he  began  his 
ministry  in  Chicago,  that  he  had  long  before  that  time  abandoned  three  of  the 
five  points  of  Calvinism  affirmed  by  the  Synod  of  Dort,  naming  the  three,  meaning 
three  of  the  doctrines  adopted  and  taught  in  the  Confession  of  Faith. 

SPECIFICATION  FOUETH. 

In  a  sermon  delivered  in  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church,  April  12,  1874, 
he  made  statements  which,  by  fair  implication,  involve  a  disbelief  in  one  or  more 
of  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  to  wit :  Of  Election,  Persever- 
ance, Original  Sin,  the  Vicarious  Sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  Trinity,  and  the  Deity 
of  Christ,  that  is  to  say  he  uses  the  following  and  similar  language : 

"After  the  hundred-year  experiment,  there  is  no  probability  that  any  mis- 
sionary gold  will  be  exhausted  upon  any  indoctrination  of  the  heathen  world  in 


100  CHARGES  AND  SPECIFICATIONS. 

denominational  ideas,  for  the  tendency  of  the  present  is  to  abandon  sectarian 
ideas  at  home ;  hence  there  will  be  little  disposition  to  inculcate  abroad  doctrines 
■which  are  rapidly  dying  by  our  own  firesides.'' 

"The  Church  of  England  joins  with  the  dissenting  churches  in  India  as  a  fact, 
and  cares  little  for  the  apostolic  succession  in  a  land  where  the  Brahmin  can  so  far 
outdo  it  in  the  quantity  and  absurdity  of  holy  touchings  and  holy  pedigrees.  And 
there  the  Calvinist  conceals  his  five  points,  for  the  crowd  of  Indian  philosophers 
can  always  propose  ten  points  far  more  obscure,  and  thus  all  the  Protestant  sects 
approach  the  whole  pagan  world  with  the  gospel  reduced  to  its  simplest  expression. 
Blessed  era  it  will  be  when  we  shall  be  as  fully  ashamed  in  America  of  the  things 
that  divide  us  as  we  are  when  our  feet  touch  India  or  Japan." 

"Can  it  be  possible  that  it  requires  home  training,  that  is,  local  and  youthful 
prejudice,  to  enable  us  to  see  the  immense  worth  of  our  dogmas,  and  that  approach- 
ing foreigners  not  fully  drilled  in  the  sectarian  method  and  tactics,  we  fear 
their  smile  of  unbelief  or  derision  ?  It  is  ominous  if,  having  a  score  or  so  of  pecu- 
liar ideas,  we  should  all  get  together  and  agree  to  say  little  about  them  to  this 
Chinaman  and  that  Brahmin.  Such  a  condition  of  things  would  seem  to  indicate 
one  more  step  along  this  path,  an  agreement  to  say  little  about  these  difierences 
to  persons  not  pagans  and  not  upon  foreign  shores." 

"We  have  come  to-day  to  a  survey  of  Christianity  in  its  truest  significance, 
and  hence  in  its  wanderings  about  from  race  to  race,  from  island  to  continent, 
from  river  to  sea,  we  may  learn  what  are  its  most  essential  parts.  A  student  shut- 
ting himself  up  in  his  room  may,  from  the  Bible,  elaborate  a  perfect  system 
which  shall  omit  nothing  regarding  the  human  will  or  the  mode  and  quality  of 
everything,  but  the  world  in  actual  experiment  may  not  need,  nor  even  faintly 
appreciate,  one-tenth  part  of  this  closet-made  system." 

The  Specifications  contained  under  Charge  I  are  relied  on  as  contained  under 
and  in  support  of  Charge  II,  the  same  as  if  repeated,  excepting  the  6th,  10th, 
and  16th. 

The  foregoing  charge  with  its  specifications  may  be  proved  by  the  printed 
writings  of  Mr.  Swing,  as  above  referred  to,  and  by  the  testimony  of  the  following 
witnesses :  Kobert  Laird  Collier,  George  A.  Shufeldt,  and  also  of  the  witnesses 
named  in  Charge  I. 

Kespectfully  submitted, 

Francis  L.  Pattoh, 
Ohicaqo,  April  13,  1874. 


PROF.   SVV^ING'S    DECLARATION. 


To  the  Members  of  the  Chicago  Presbytery: 

Called  upon  in  the  outset  of  these  proceedings  to  enter  my  plea  to  the  charges 
and  specifications  presented  by  Francis  L.  Patton,  I  beg  permission  to  submit  the 
.following:  I  object  to  the  charges  as  too  vague  and  as  embracing  no  important 
oflfense,  yet,  not  wishing  to  raise  any  technical  objections,  I  enter  the  plea  of  "Not 
guilty."  I  admit  the  extracts  from  sermons  and  writings,  but  I  would  ask  the 
Pres'.iytery  to  consider  the  entire  essays  or  whole  discourses  from  which  the 
extracts  are  made.  I  avow  myself  to  be  what,  before  the  late  union,  was  styled  a 
New  School  Presbyterian,  and  deny  myself  to  have  come  into  conilict  with  any  of 
the  Evangelical  Calvinistic  doctrines  of  the  denomination  with  which  I  am  con- 
nected, and  I  beg  permission  to  enter  as  a  part  of  my  plea  the  following  state- 
ments :  1.  Kcgarding  my  relations  to  the  Liberal  Churches.  2.  Kegarding  my 
relation  to  the  Presbyterian  Church.     Of  these  I  shall  speak  in  their  order. 

By  way  of  explaining  the  quantity  of  the  public  oflence,  I  will  state  that  of 
fifteen  lectures  delivered  in  this  city  for  benevolent  purposes,  all  but  two  were  on 
behalf  of  the  Evangelical  Churches,  and,  in  all  cases  but  one,  remuneration  was 
declined.  Hence  the  spirit  that  prompted  such  lectures  must  have  been  not  any 
marked  partiality  for  the  so-called  liberal  societies.  This  much  as  to  the  quantity 
of  the  alleged  offense.  Upon  the  quality  of  the  conduct  I  would  submit  the  follow- 
ing observations : 

1.  There  is  no  valuable  theory  of  life  except  that  of  good  will  toward  all 
men.  It  is  only  upon  the  basis  of  a  wide  friendship  any  one  can  live  well  the  few 
years  of  this  existence,  and  hence  to  decline  to  lecture  on  behalf  of  a  Unitarian 
chapel  would  do  more  harm  to  the  mutual  good  will  upon  which  society  is 
founded,  than  it  would  do  good  to  an  orthodox  theology,  or  harm  to  a  liberal  creed. 

2.  If  the  object  of  the  Evangelical  pulpit  is  to  promulge  its  better  truth,  it 
can  do  so  only  as  far  as  its  ministry  reveal  a  deep  friendship  toward  all  mankind, 
and  so  far  as  they  unfurl  the  banner  of  their  own  love,  while  they  are  presuming  to 
speak  of  the  impartial  love  of  their  Divine  Master.  There  remains  no  longer  any 
power  of  authority  in  the  pulpit.  The  time  when  the  civil  police  drove  a  halting 
sinner  into  the  true  Church  has  disappeared,  and  the  modern  pulpit  must  com- 
municate its  ideas  along  the  chords  of  friendship,  and  he  will  persuade  the  most 
men  whoso  heart  can  gather  up  the  largest  and  most  diverse  multitude  into  the 
grasp  of  his  pure  affections. 

3.  But  let  us  come  now  to  the  grandest  reason  why  a  Presbyterian  may 
express  in  many  ways  a  kind  regard  for  these  so-called  Liberal  sects.  The  sin  of  the 
"lecture,"  as  charged,  must  be  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  Unitarian  sects 
are  outcast  from  God,  having  no  hope  in  the  life  to  come.  The  names  of  Chann- 
ing,  and  Elliot,  and  Huntington,  and  Peabody,  in  the  pulpits  of  that  sect,  and  the 
Christ-like  lives  of  thousands  in  the  congregations  of  that  denomination,  utterly 
exclude  from  my  mind  and  my  heart  the  most  remote  idea  that  in  showing  that 


102  PROF.  SWING'S  DECLARATION. 

brotherhood  any  kindness  I  am  ofiFering  indirect  approval  to  persons  outside  the 
pale  of  the  Christian  religion  and  hope.  The  idea  that  these  brethren  are  doomed 
to  wrath  beyond  the  tomb  I  wholly  repudiate.  It  is,  indeed,  my  conviction  that 
they  do  not  hold  as  correct  a  version  of  the  Gospel  as  that  announced  by  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  a  few  years  ago,  yet  I  am  just  as  certain  that  the  Blessed  Lord 
does  not  bestow  His  forgiveness  and  grace  upon  the  mind  that  possesses  the  most 
accurate  information,  but  upon  the  heart  that  loves  and  trusts  Him.  It  is  possible 
that  the  venerable  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Princeton,  holds  a  more  truthful  view  of  Jesus 
than  may  be  held  by  the  distinguished  Peabody,  who  has  just  lectured  from  his 
Unitarian  standpoint  before  the  Calvinists  in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary ; 
but  we  can  point  to  nothing  in  the  Bible  that  would  indicate  that  heaven  is  to  be 
given  to  only  the  one  of  these  two  giants  who  may  possess  the  clearer  apprehension 
of  a  truth.  It  may  be  assumed  that  God  grants  the  world  salvation  only  on 
account  of  the  expiatory  atonement  made  by  a  Kedeemer ;  but  that  God  will  grant 
this  salvation  to  only  those  who  fully  apprehend  this  fact,  is  an  idea  not  to  be 
entertained  for  an  instant,  for  this  would  give  heaven  only  to  philosophers,  and 
indeed  only  to  those  of  this  small  class  who  shall  have  made  no  intellectual  mis- 
take. Looking  upon  the  multitudes  who  need  this  salvation,  and  seeing  that  they 
are  composed  of  common  men,  women,  and  children  who  know  nothing  of  the 
distinctions  of  formal  theology,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  paradise  is  not  to  be 
a  reward  of  scholarship,  but  of  a  loving,  obedient  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

When  we  remember  these  things,  and  recall  that  Dr.  Isaac  Watts  was  accused 
of  being  a  Unitarian,  so  diflBcult  often  is  it  to  perceive  the  dividing  line,  we  cannot 
for  a  moment  place  these  persons  called  Unitarians  outside  the  great  and  generous 
love  of  the  Saviour.  I  stand  ready,  therefore,  at  all  times  to  express  toward  these 
sects  a  friendship  not  only  human,  and  wise,  and  social,  but  also  Christian. 

The  harmony  existing  between  all  these  brethren  and  myself  is  not  a  harmony 
of  views  in  the  mind,  but  a  harmony  of  love  in  the  soul.  They  each  and  all  know 
that  I  differ  widely  from  them,  but  this  they  and  I  know :  that  only  the  most 
gentlemanly  treatment  in  public  and  private  will  we  all  receive  always  from  each 
other.  Much  as  I  love  Presbyterianism,  a  love  inherited  from  all  my  ancestors, 
if  on  account  of  it,  it  were  necessary  for  me  to  abate  in  the  least  my  good  will 
toward  all  sects,  I  should  refuse  to  purchase  the  Presbyterian  name  at  so  dear 
a  price. 

The  second  point  to  be  alluded  to  was  my  relations  to  Presbyterianism.  A 
distinction  evidently  exists  between  Presbyterianism  as  formulated  in  past  times 
and  Presbyterianism  actual.  A  creed  is  only  the  highest  wisdom  of  a  particular 
time  and  place.  Hence,  as  in  State,  there  is  always  a  quiet  slipping  away  from 
old  laws  without  any  waiting  for  a  formal  repeal,  as  some  of  the  old  statutes  of 
Connecticut  are  lying  dead,  not  by  any  legal  death,  but  by  long  emaciation  and 
final  neglect  of  friend  and  foe ;  so  in  all  formulated  creeds,  Catholic  or  Protestant, 
there  is  a  gradual,  but  constant  decay  of  some  article  or  word  which  was  once  pro- 
mulged  amid  great  pomp  and  circumstance.  And  yet  no  Church  is  willing  to 
confess  its  past  folly  and  repeal  the  injurious  or  untrue.  All,  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant, simply  agree  to  remain  silent. 

In  the  Presbyterian  Confession  of  Faith  there  are  about  200  formulas  of  truth, 
or  supposed  truth.  It  is  a  wonderful  argument  in  favor  of  this  compendium  that 
not  one-tenth  of  these  have  been  found  false  to  the  Bible  or  false  to  the  welfare  of 
society.  To  designate  these  200  as  Calvinism  is  a  gross  injustice,  for  they  are 
almost  all  only  valuable  truths,  common  to  all  Churches,  and  gathered  up  from 
the  sacred  page. 


PROF.  SWING'S  DECLARATION.  103 

But  from  a  few  statements  out  of  this  large  number  the  actual  Presbyterian 
Church  has  quietly  passed  away.  Conventions  cannot  be  called  every  few  years  to 
amend  or  repeal  some  one  article.  It  would  entail  endless  debate  and  expense, 
and  perhaps  promote  wide  discord,  thus  to  call  from  time  to  time  a  new  "West- 
minster Assembly.  As  the  Christian  world  avoid  a  revision  of  the  translation  of 
tie  Bible  because  of  the  tumult  such  a  new  version  would  probably  create  among 
the  sects,  so  each  particular  Church  postpones  as  long  as  possible  any  formal  modi- 
fication of  its  historic  statements  of  doctrine.  But  meanwhile  individual  minds 
cannot  be  slaves  ;  they  cannot  suspend  the  use  of  their  judgment  and  best  common 
sense.  Hence,  unable  to  revoke  any  dangerous  idea  by  law,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  permits  its  clergy  to  distinguish  the  actual  from  the  Church  historic.  To 
the  Presbyterian  Church  actual  I  have  thus  far  devoted  my  life,  giving  it  what  I 
possess  of  mind  and  heart. 

Chief  among  the  doctrines  which  our  Church  has  passed  by  as  being  incorrect, 
or  else  on  overdevelopment  of  Scriptural  ideas,  are  all  those  formulas  which  looked 
toward  a  dark  fatalism,  or  which  destroy  the  human  will,  or  indicate  the  dam- 
nation of  some  infant,  or  that  God,  for  His  own  glory,  foreordained  a  vast  majority 
of  the  race  to  everlasting  death.  It  has  been  my  good  or  bad  fortune  to  speak  in 
public  and  in  private  to  a  large  number  of  persons  hostile  to  our  Church,  and  in 
nearly  all  cases  I  have  found  their  hostility  based  upon  the  doctrines  indicated 
above,  and  in  all  ways  I  have  declared  to  them  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  had 
left  behind  those  doctrines,  and  that  her  religion  was  simply  evangelical,  and  not, 
par  excellence,  the  religion  of  despair.  In  my  peculiar  ministry  a  simple  silence 
has  not  been  sufficient.  I  have,  therefore,  at  many  times,  declared  our  denomi- 
nation to  be  simply  a  Church  of  the  common  evangelical  doctrines. 

Besides  the  formulas  of  its  books,  our  Church  has  suffered  more  than  pen  can 
record  from  the  wild  utterances  of  some  of  its  great  names,  and  from  these  it  has 
been  my  frequent  duty  to  try  to  separate  her  fair  and  sweeter  present.  There  were 
ages  when  mothers  wailed  in  awful  agony  over  a  dead  infant,  because  they  had 
been  taught  that  children  "not  a  span  long"  were  suffering  on  the  hot  floor  of 
hell,  and  each  new-born  infant  was  only  a  "lump  of  perdition  ;"  and,  under  the 
awful  lashing  of  these  thoughts,  mothers  used  to  baptize  their  dead-born  little 
ones,  piteously  beseeching  God  to  ante-date  the  sacred  rite.  In  the  midst  of  this 
wail  of  infants  damned,  Luther  himself  says,  "God  pleaseth  you  when  He  crowns 
the  unworthy;  He  ought  not  to  displease  you  when  He  damns  the  innocent." 

Against  the  doctrine  of  fatalism,  as  implied  in  the  perfect  independence  of 
God's  decree  as  to  all  human  conduct,  against  the  ultra  form  of  human  inability,  it 
has  been  my  constant  duty,  as  it  seemed,  to  protest,  and  thus  defend  our  Church 
from  the  influence  of  ideas  so  repudiated  by  modern  thought.  An  eminent  church- 
man, perhaps  Luther,  said,  "All  things  take  place  by  the  eternal  and  invariable 
will  of  God,  who  blasts  and  shatters  in  pieces  the  freedom  of  the  will." 

Next  to  the  baneful  Calvinistic  estimate  of  the  will,  comes  the  overstatement 
of  the  idea  of  salvation  by  faith  all  along  through  the  Presbyterian  history.  Said 
Luther,  "You  see  how  rich  is  the  Christian.  Even  if  he  would,  he  could  not 
destroy  his  salvation  by  any  sins,  however  grievous,  unless  he  refuse  to  believe." 
"Bo  thou  a  sinner  and  sin  boldly,  still  more  boldly  believe.  From  Christ  no  sin 
shall  separate,  though  a  thousand  thousand  times  a  day  we  should  commit  fornica- 
tion and  murder."  In  my  ministry  I  have  toiled  the  harder  to  unite  faith  and 
holiness,  because  of  this  dreadful  page  of  history  written  down  against  the  Cal- 
vinistic branches  of  the  Protestant  Church. 

Next  to  the  injury  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  sustained  from  its  errors  as 


104  PROF.  SWING'S  DECLARATION. 

above  mentioned,  it  has  become  a  source  of  actual  infidelity  by  its  terrific  doctrine 
of  hell.  Even  to  the  day  of  Edwards,  and  since,  the  pictures  of  perdition  have, 
been  such  as  at  first,  indeed,  to  frighten  the  multitude,  but  such  as  afterward  to 
destroy  the  idea  of  God.  Look  where  men  might,  it  was  perdition  to  all  but  his 
sect,  and  to  look  upon  other  sects  in  the  pains  of  hell,  was  to  form  a  part  of  the 
happiness  of  the  blessed.  The  fagot,  the  rack,  and  the  boiling  oil  were  a  resort 
of  potentates,  for,  if  God  was  so  glorying  in  the  torment  of  heretics  just  beyond, 
it  was  a  small  matter  if  the  Church  tormented  them  slightly  on  this  side  the  tomb, 
"We  need  not  disguise  the  fact,  my  brethren,  that  the  dark  side  of  Calvinism  gave 
birth  to  infidelity  in  that  age  when  the  Church  was  narrow  in  its  love,  broad 
only  in  its  damnation.  But  permit  me  to  quote  from  one  who  has  not  been 
arraigned  for  bad  teaching,  but  whose  words  have  just  been  published  by  the 
American  Tract  Society, — Theodore  Christlieb.  He  says :  "It  was  the  former 
century  which  prepared  the  way  among  ourselves  for  the  prevalence  of  rational- 
ism. Was  it  not  the  petrifaction  of  evangelical  faith  into  dry  forms  of  a  dead 
orthodoxy  ?  The  sermons  of  that  period  were  for  the  most  part  *  *  *  about 
Crypto  CalvinistSj  Syncredists,  Synergists,  Majorists,  Antinomians,  Osiandrians, 
Weigelians,  and  Arminians.  ******  At  such  a  time,  when  a  cold 
orthodoxy  was  almost  everywhere  substituted  for  living  faith,  when  a  slavish 
adherence  to  the  Church's  standards  was  put  in  place  of  a  free  inquiry  into  the 
sense  of  Scripture,  and  a  fresh  bondage  to  the  letter  was  introduced,  it  became  a 
simple  necessity  for  energetic  minds  like  Lessing  to  come  to  an  open  breach  with 
traditional  Protestantism.  *  *  *  Kationalism  was  right  in  contending  for 
simple  morality  in  opposition  to  a  theoretic  orthodoxy."  "It  must  be  confessed 
that  the  Church  theology  of  the  last  century  was  chiefly  to  blame  for  the  general 
apostasy  from  the  ancient  faith  which  then  began.  From  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  to  the  end  of  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth,  the  chief 
authorities  in  pulpits  and  institutions  of  learning  were  promoters  of  rationalism^ 
*  *  *  *  por  this  spirit  we  theologians  have  only  ourselves  to  thank.  We  are 
now  reaping  what  we  ourselves  have  sown." 

Such  are  the  words  of  a  profound  thinker,  who,  to  his  fame  as  a  thinker,  adds 
a  parallel  fame  of  piety.  Amid  some  of  the  unparalleled  doctrines  of  our  Church 
arose  the  intellectual  revolt  of  the  present  times,  and  we  can  only  check  the 
progress  of  the  evil  by  withdrawing  the  cause.  It  is  an  ominous  fact  that  the 
liberal  creed  which  the  charges  in  this  case  so  attack  has  sprung  chiefly  from  that 
land  which  once  lay  wholly  subject  to  the  severe  tenets  of  the  Puritans. 

It  seems  to  me  the  world  is  now  fully  ready  for  an  orthodoxy  that  shall  firmly, 
yet  tenderly,  preach  all  of  the  creed,  except  its  plain  errors  of  dark  views  of  God 
and  man.  Not  one  of  you,  my  brethren,  has  preached  the  dark  theology  of 
Jonathan  Edwards  in  your  whole  life.  Nothing  could  induce  you  to  preach  it, 
and  yet  it  is  written  down  in  your  creed  in  dreadful  plainness.  Confess,  with  me, 
that  our  beloved  Church  has  slipped  away  from  the  religion  of  despair,  and  has 
come  unto  Mount  Sion,  into  the  atmosphere  of  Jesus,  as  He  was  in  life  and  in 
death,  full  of  love  and  forgiveness.  And  yet  it  is  only  in  the  narrow  field  just 
pointed  out  that  I  have  in  any  way  departed  from  the  doctrines  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  our  theological  teachers  in  the  East  has  just 
written  :  "There  is  not  enough  in  that  indictment  to  convict  one  of  heresy.  All 
these  commotions  only  point  to  a  time  when  sectarianism  will  disappears,  and  all 
Christians  will  meet  on  the  platform  of  a  common  faith  in  one  Christ  and  one 


PROF.  SWING'S  DECLARATION.  105 

Saviour,  and,  fastening  all  their  faith  upon  Him  as  a  Kodeemer,  will  cast  off  many 
of  the  forms  which  now  perplex  them." 

Beloved  brethren,  holding  the  general  creed  as  rendered  by  the  former  New 
School  Theologians,  I  will,  in  addition  to  such  a  general  statement,  repeat  to  you 
articles  of  belief,  upon  which  I  am  willing  to  meet  the  educated  world,  and  the 
skeptical  world,  and  the  sinful  world,  using  my  words  in  the  evangelical  sense: 
The  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
office  of  Christ  as  a  mediator  when  grasped  by  an  obedient  faith,  conversion  by 
God's  Spirit,  man's  natural  sinfulness,  and  the  final  separation  of  the  righteous 
and  wicked. 

I  have  now  read  before  you  an  outline  of  my  public  method  and  of  my 
Christian  creed.  It  is  for  you  to  decide  whether  there  is  in  me  orthodox  belief 
sufficient  to  retain  me  in  your  brotherhood.  Having  confessed  everywhere  that 
the  value  of  a  single  life  does  not  depend  upon  sectarian  relations,  but  upon 
evangelical  or  Christian  relations,  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  cross  a  boundary 
which  I  have  often  shown  to  be  narrow  ;  but,  going  from  you,  if  such  be  your 
order  at  last,  it  is  the  evangelical  Gospel  I  shall  still  preach,  unless  my  mind 
should  pass  through  undreamed  of  changes  in  the  future. 

From  the  prosecutor  of  this  case  I  would  not  withhold  my  conviction  that 
he  has  acted  from  a  sense  of  duty  ;  therefore,  to  him  and  to  you  all,  brethren,  I 
extend  good-will,  and  hope  that  in  a  wisdom  religious  and  fraternal  you  will  be 
enabled  to  do  what  is  right  in  the  sight  of  God 

Yours,  with  love, 

David  Swino. 


Arguments  for  the  Prosecution  and  Defense. 


Presbytery  opened  at  10  o'clock  yesterday  morning  in  the  chapel  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church.     The  attendance  was  very  full.     Professor  Swing  was  not 

J  resent.     After  roll  call  and  reading  the  minutes,  the  Stated  Clerk,  the  Kev.  Mr. 
ohnson,  read  the  following  report  from  the  committee  in  whose  charge  was  given 

DE.  SWAZEY'S  PKOTEST 

against  the  charges : 

"The  committee  appointed  to  prepare  a  statement  of  reasons  for  the  Presbytery's 
action  in  relation  to  the  testimony  of  H.  F.  Waite,  Esq.,  submit  the  following  : 

"1.  The  judicial  action  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Court,  often,  as  in  the  present 
case,  pertains  to  matters  of  religious  opinion,  and  even  to  the  impressions  made 
by  public  services.  It  is,  therefore,  not  possible  to  confine  the  testimony  on  either 
side  strictly  within  the  technical  rules  of  evidence  that  are  enforced  in  the  juris- 
diction of  civil  courts.  But  especially  in  this  trial,  on  the  part  of  the  accused,  who 
is  permitted  to  produce  any  testimony  that  has  a  direct  or  indirect  bearing  upon 
his  exculpation.  The  judicatories  of  our  church,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  have 
always,  in  such  cases,  arrived  at  substantial  equity  without  much  regard  to  techni- 
calities, and  this  Presbytery,  in  adjudicating  the  present  question,  has  permitted 
the  prosecutor  to  make  charges  and  to  introduce  testimony  that  would  not  for  a 
moment  be  admitted  in  a  civil  tribunal.  The  charges,  and  many  of  the  specifi- 
cations, take  a  very  wide  range,  and  the  rebutting  testimony  could  not  be  fairly 
restricted,  except  by  the  limit  already  indicated  and  already  accorded  to  the 
prosecutor.     No  rule  of  our  church  has  been  produced  to  require  more  than  this. 

"2.  No  rules  of  evidence  applicable  in  civil  courts  which  could  have  any 
proper  bearing  upon  the  procedure  of  this  judicatory  would  exclude  any  of  Mr. 
Waite's  testimony.  Under  these  rules  the  accused  is  accorded  many  rights  that 
are  not  granted  to  the  prosecutor.  At  this  point  the  committee  quoted  Greenleaf 
and  other  authorities. 

"3.  The  several  motions  of  the  prosecutor  were  denied  in  the  application  of 
the  foregoing  principles  as  follows: 

"  1.  The  first  motion  was  denied  because  the  testimony  of  the  defense  was  not 
confined  to  specification  5,  and  if  it  had  been  evidence  to  the  language  spoken  at 
other  times  was  admissible  on  that  issue,  the  burden  of  proof  resting  on  the 
prosecution,  against  whose  evidence  any  presumption  might  be  raised  by  proving 
the  previous  evangelical  character  of  the  respondent's  teachings.  Besides,  the 
charges  and  specifications  are  general  and  carry  the  court  back  to  the  year  A.  D. 
1867,  especially  specifications  2  and  3,  charge  2. 

"2.  The  second  motion  was  denied  because  written  sermons  are  not  neces- 
sarily the  only  prfmary  evidence.  Such  documents  are  not  in  the  nature  of  written 
contracts  duly  executed.  They  are  merely  the  speaker's  memoranda,  from  which 
he  may  depart  more  or  less  in  the  delivery.  Lectures  are  also  public  teachings, 
and  specification  five  refers  expressly  to  preaching  or  teaching.  In  this  case  the 
written  expositions  of  Scripture,  which  are  in  fact  sermons,  oflTered  the  best 
evidence,  because  Professor  Swing,  under  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of  the 
society,  when  they  had  no  house  of  worship  of  their  own,  preached  to  very  miscel- 
laneous congregations,.' a  large  portion  of  whom  might,  in  his  judgment,  be 
specially  benefited  by  general  discourses  adapted  to  their  state  of  mind  as  partial 
unbelievers.  He  may,  therefore,  have  reserved  most  of  his  more  strictly  doctrinal 
teachings  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  people  to  his  "Wednesday  evening  lectures. 
Besides  the   entire   impressions   of  regular  hearers   are  in  some  respects  better 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       107 

evidence  as  to  the  evangelical  character  even  of  written  sermons  than  the  sermons 
themselves  would  be  if  read  before  this  body  in  a  critical  spirit,  and  under  the 
charge  of  radical  defects  or  error.  Moreover,  it  would  be  impracticable  to  read  to 
this  body  all  the  sermons  of  Professor  Swing,  delivered  during  a  period  of  two 
years  and  a  half,  in  order  to  determine  the  point  at  issue.  The  defendant  may 
produce  by  condensed  evidence  available  in  such  a  case,  the  burden  of  proof  of 
course  being  upon  the  accuser. 

"  3.     The  third  motion  was  denied  for  the  reasons  already  given. 

"4.  The  fourth  motion  was  denied  for  the  reasons  stated  under  the  second 
motion. 

"5.     The  fifth  motion  was  denied  for  all  the  reasons  aforesaid, 

"Respectfully  submitted. 

"D.  S.  Johnson, 
K.  W.  Patterson, 
Francis  A.  Riddle." 

This  was  accepted  and  approved. 

The  Eev.  Mr.  Noyes  called  attention  to  a  rule  which  allowed  members  of 
Presbytery,  after  testimony  and  arguments  were  all  in,  to  rise  and  state  their  views 
of  the  case,  "  to  a  reasonable  extent."  He  wished  to  have  Presbytery  settle  what 
would  be  "a  reasonable  extent."     The  request  was  temporarily  past  over. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Blackburn  read  this  resolution,  being  the  one  he  gave  notice  of 
on  Friday  last : 

Resolved,  That  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago  overture  the  General  Assembly  to 
institute  measures  at  its  session  in  St.  Louis,  1874,  for  the  revision  of  the  Book  of 
Discipline.  Presbytery  does  not  deem  it  necessary  to  refer  to  any  other  reasons 
than  the  necessity  evident  on  the  face  of  the  book  for  such  a  revision  and  the 
experience  of  the  church. 

Which  was  temporarily  laid  upon  the  table  after  the  Rev.  Mr.  Trowbridge  had 
moved  as  an  amendment  that  the  confession  of  faith  be  included  in  the  revision. 

Dr.  Patterson  ofl'ered  this  : 

Resolved,  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  judicatory  it  is  due  to  the  interests  of 
impartial  justice  and  to  the  dignity  of  an  ecclesiastical  court  that  the  members  of 
this  body,  and  especially  the  parties,  or  either  of  them,  engaged  in  the  case  now 
pending,  should  obtain  from  the  publication  and  circulation  of  criticism  upon  the 
action  of  the  court,  and  from  public  discussions  of  the  merits  of  the  case,  outside  of 
the  j  udicatory,  before  the  final  issue  is  reached. 

As  a  very  strong  disposition  to  discuss  this  point  at  length  instantly  manifested 
itself,  the  resolution  was  laid  on  the  table,  like  its  predecessors. 

Dr.  Patterson  then  recurred  to  the  limitation  of  time  suggested  by  Mr.  Noyes. 
The  Rev.  Mr  Young  moved  that  both  prosecution  and  defense  be  allowed  as  much 
time  as  they  might  deem  necessary.     Laid  upon  the  table. 

"Whereupon  the  Moderator  admonished  Presbytery  of  the  solemnity  of  its 
duties  as  a  court  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  observed  that  the  time  had  come  (the 
testimony  being  finished)  for  comment  by  members  of  Presbytery  ;  "first  of  all, 
from  the  prosecutor,"  at  which  Professor  Patton,  calm  and  bloodless  as  the  spirit 
of  Hamlet's  father,  arose  and  began  : 

Mr.  Moderator  and  Brethren  of  the  Prksbytert  :  Grave  charges  are 

Eroposed  against  a  popular  minister.  He  is  beloved  by  his  congregation,  and  he 
as  the  sympathies  of  the  city.  To  many  of  you  he  stands  in  the  relation  of  a 
warm  personal  friend.  You  and  he  have  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  sweet  counsel 
together.  It  is  as  if  the  children  of  a  family  were  impaneled  at  the  bar  to  listen 
to  charges  preferred  against  one  of  their  number  at  the  hands  of  a  stranger. 
I  should  not  think  it  strange  if  your  first  impulse  were  to  stand  by  your  friend, 
and  out  of  your  convictions  as  to  his  faith,  to  shield  him  from  reproach.  I  can 
conceive  what  questions  may  be  asked  at  the  institution  of  such  a  case.  To  these 
questions  1  would  answer  that  when  the  cause  of  truth  is  in  issue,  we  can  aiTord  to 
risk  something.  The  burden  of  this  battle,  God  has  seen  fit  to  cast  this  burden 
upon  young  shoulders.  I  will  go  on,  sustained  by  the  consciousness  that  I  am 
pleading  the  cause  of  my  crucified  Lord.  Let  me  ask  you,  brothers,  to  lay  aside 
all  personal  predilections,  and  act  purely  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement 
of  His  kingdom. 

You  will  notice  that  one  of  the  first  charges  brought  against  Professor  Swing 
IB  the  charge  that  he  has  departed  from  his  ordination  vows.  And  that  he  has  not 
been  zealous  and  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties — unfaithful  in  the  several 


108       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

forms  and  specifications  set  forth.  It  should  rest  with  the  defense  to  disprove  each 
particular  item  of  these  charges  and  specifications.  It  seems  to  be  clear,  if  anything 
is,  that  the  defense  is  bound  to  disprove  each  of  these  in  precise  terms — not  to 
assert  other  things  than  are  mentioned  in  them.  The  specifications  are  true,  or 
the  y  are  not  true.  They  either  sustain  or  do  not  sustain  the  charges.  What  is 
the  standard  by  which  is  to  be  decided  the  question  whether  these  charges,  if  true, 
constitute  offenses?  It  is  an  ofiense  to  revile  the  doctrines  of  predestination  and 
of  infant  baptism  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  whatever  it  may  be  in  other 
churches.  Then  the  question  follows,  "What  is  the  Presbyterian  Church  ?  The 
standard  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  Confession  of  Paith  and  the  catechisms  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly.  Even  though  it  so  happened,  once  in  the  history  of 
the  church,  that  the  body  of  her  people  saw  fit  to  divide,  each  wing  took  the 
Confession  of  Faith ;  and  when,  in  the  process  of  time,  it  seemed  fit  for  them  to 
reunite,  they  came  together  on  the  basis  of  the  confession.  Never  has  it  been 
dreamed  that  the  church  should  lose  her  anchorage  and  drift  away  from  the 
Confession  of  Faith. 

The  broadest  basis  ever  dreamed  of  by  either  Old  or  New  School,  was  one 
which  contemplated  the  preservation  in  its  integrity  of  the  Eeformedor  Calvinistic 
system.  The  plan  of  reunion,  as  proposed  in  1869,  was  afterward  adopted  unani- 
mously by  both  bodies  on  a  rising  vote  and  read  with  emphasis  the  d  eclaration 
that  this  solemn  decision  was  of  binding  force.  Is  the  Confession  of  Faith  thus 
decided  upon  to  be  called'  in  question  by  the  Chicago  Presbytery?  I  think  it  was 
when  Presbytery  listened  to  the  accused  and  gave  some  indications  of  approval, 
not  in  its  corporate  capacity,  but  by  the  action  of  individual  members,  to  the  plea 
of  Professor  Swing,  when  he  admitted  that  he  was  not  in  accord  with  the  Confession 
of  Faith  ;  that  he  had  actually  departed  from  that  Confession  of  Faith  so  far  as 
one  or  two  of  its  doctrines  were  concerned,  and  what  was  more,  when  he  actually 
in  the  face  of  this  solemn  body  declared  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  a  very 
different  thing  actually  from  what  it  is  in  its  formulated  theology.  The  plea  of 
Professor  Swing  was  an  admission  that  he  did  not  believe  the  doctrine  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  or  take  that  Confession  of  Faith,  as  the  expression  of  his 
belief  and  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Word  of  God.  I  scout 
the  idea  set  abroad  that  this  trial  is  raising  the  old  points  of  dispute  between  the 
Old  and  New  Schools.  I  know  Professor  Swing  claims  to  be  a  New  School 
Presbyterian — I  have  never  charged  him  with  being  an  Old  School  Presbyterian. 
The  plea  had  no  reference  except  to  enlist  the  sympathy  of  the  Presbytery  and  to 
revive  past  divisions.  Swing's  pleas  were  an  insult  to  the  Presbytery,  and  if  they 
were  loyal  Presbyteries  they  would  have  resented  it  on  the  spot. 

Professor  Swing's  sermons  do  not  contain  any  distinct  and  unequivocal  statement 
with  reference  to  the  main  Presbyterian  doctrines. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  there  is  no  language  in  Professor 
Swing's  sermons  which  to  unpracticed  ears  might  sound  as  though  it  conveyed  a 
teaching  of  the  divine  character  of  our  Saviour.  On  the  contrary,  I  shall  quote 
from  his  sermons  many  just  such  passages.  For  instance,  in  "  Truths  for  To-day," 
page  64,  he  says :  "  The  inferences  from  this  dependence  of  human  purity  upon 
God  must  be  these  :  Christ,  in  unfolding  the  character  of  God,  in  tearing  down  old 
idols,  and  in  filling  the  universe  with  one  spirit,  infinite  and  blessed,  has  done  a 
work  that  should  bind  Him  upon  the  forehead  and  heart  of  man." 

And  upon  pages  78  and  79:  "Let  us  now  approach  a  more  warmly-disputed 
proposition — that  the  divineness  of  Christ  is  something  essential  in  the  Christian 
system." 

I  quoted  that  to  one  of  the  gentlemen  on  the  stand,  and  asked  him  whether  he 
thought  that  was  teaching  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  he  said  it  was. 

"  For  if  Christ  be  not  divine,  every  impulse  of  the  Christian  world  falls  to  a 
lower  octave,  and  light,  and  love,  and  hope  alike  decline.  There  is  no  doctrine 
into  which  the  heart  may  so  inweave  itself  and  find  anchorage  and  peace  as  in  this 
divineness  of  the  Lord.  Hence,  Christianity  bears  readily  the  idea  of  three  offices, 
and  permits  the  one  God  to  appear  in  Father,  or  in  Son,  or  in  Spirit." 

That  is  Unitarianism.  That  is  the  doctrine  of  James  Freeman  Clarke,  whom 
I  mean  to  quote  before  long.     On  page  263  we  read  : 

"' In  the  beginning  was  the  Word.'  That  Greek  term  which  we  translate 
Word  had  long  been  upon  the  tongues  of  scholars.  Its  meaning  was  always 
somewhat  hidden.     It  seems  to  have  represented  the  Supreme  Being  out  upon  an 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       109 

errand  of  mercy,  or  creation,  as  liglit  flies  away  from  the  sun.  It  is  that  light 
before  which  ddrkness  flees  ;  that  life  before  which  death  retreats.  It  is  indefinable 
and  inconceivable.  Yet  John  saw  this  Logos  entering  the  human  body  as  light 
seems  to  rush  into  the  eye  and  sound  into  the  ear.  It  dwelt  among  us,  and  we 
beheld  its  glory,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 

Many  persons  would  call  this  a  clear  statement  of  Christ's  deity,  yet  any  Arian 
might  say  as  much.     Page  266  : 

"Out  of  John's  soul  we  see  issuing  these  ideas  :  Christ,  the  saviour  ;  Christ,  the 
divine;  Christ,  the  intimate  friend.  The  opening  chapter  reveals  the  divinity  of 
John's  master,  and  the  office  of  Saviour  is  revealed  in  every  page." 

Now,  in  order  to  make  good  the  proposition  that  these  are  not  unequivocal 
statements,  let  me  read  to  you  from  Dr.  Eider,  who  does  not  make  any  pretensions 
to  belief  in  the  divinity  of  Christ.  In  his  sermon  entitled,  "Is  IJniversalism 
Evangelical?"  he  saj-s : 

"Christ  is  with  us  literally  the  hope  of  glory.  Without  Him  as  the  inter- 
preter of  God  to  men  and  the  mediator  between  Him  and  us,  we  are  without  God 
and  without  hope  in  the  world." 

Universalists  talk  about  a  Saviour,  too  : 

"  Man  is  created  innocent — all  men  are — but  by  voluntary  acts  they  become 
sinners,  and  so  need  a  Saviour  to  guide  and  sanctify." 
In  page  264  on  the  "atonement,"  Dr.  Clark  said  : 

"  In  conclusion  we  may  say  that  orthodoxy  is  right  in  maintaining  that  Jesus 
has  by  His  suffering  and  death  brought  forgiveness  to  mankind — not  by  propitiat- 
ing God  or  appeasing  His  anger,  not  by  paying  our  debt  or  removing  a  difficulty 
in  the  divine  mind,  but  by  helping  us  to  see  that  the  love  of  God  is  able  to  lift 
us  out  of  our  sin,  and  present  us  spotless  in  the  presence  of  his  glory  with  exceeding 
joy.  The  way  in  which  His  death  produces  this  result  is  the  sympathy  with 
human  sinfulness  and  sorrow,  which  finds  in  it  its  highest  expression.  Those  whom 
men  cannot  forgive,  and  who  cannot  forgive  themselves,  see  that  God,  speaking 
through  the  sufl'erings  of  Jesus,  is  able  to  forgive  them.  So  the  love  of  God  brings 
them  to  repentance,  and  those  who  were  afar  ofi"  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood 
of  Christ. 

Pass  ^o  page  81 : 

"  Cast  yourself  into  the  laws  of  faith  and  conversion,  and  repentance,  and 
love  and  hope,  and  of  the  Divine  Lord,  and  upon  these  be  carried  by  a  new, 
recreative  experience  over  to  a  new  world  called  a  new  heart  love — called  heaven 
hereafter." 

What  does  he  mean?  I  challenge  these  elders  to  tell  me  what  that  means. 
Theory  can't  do  it. 

Look  at  page  179 : 

"Our  tears  might  well  mingle  with  those  of  the  penitent  banker,  if  he  be 
penitent,  and  we  might  say,  along  with  him,  '  we  stand  afar  off.*  This  Christ  has 
fulfilled  a  law  which  we  have  broken,  and  to  us,  no  longer  able  to  flee  unto 
ourselves  and  find  peace.  Ho  says,  '  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  " 

I  will  venture  to  say  that  if  the  defense  quotes  anything  it  will  quote  that.  It 
is  the  strongest  in  the  book.     We  will  go  next  to  page  238 : 

"Salvation  of  man,  therefore,  must  be  man's  transformation  from  a  sinful  to 
a  holy  nature.  It  is  a  return  of  that  which  was  lost.  A  legal  salvation  may  be  a 
preliminary  or  a  concomitant,  but  cannot,  in  morals,  be  the  chief  salvation.  In 
the  financial  department  of  life,  a  debtor  can  be  saved  by  having  his  debts  paid. 
Condemned  to  death,  a  criminal  can  be  saved  by  a  letter  of  pardon  having  upon 
it  the  seal  of  the  king ;  but  in  morals,  a  salvation  is  not  simply  a  discharge  from 
debt,  or  an  escape  from  a  penalty,  but  a  change  in  the  spirit,  a  transition  from 
vice  to  virtue.  'I'he  term,  therefore,  draws  its  deepest  interest  from  the  term  ^05^. 
If  a  man  is  lost  in  wickedness,  he  is  found  again  in  a  perfection  of  moral  character. 
If  my  calamity  is  hunger,  food  is  my  release ;  if  my  soul's  calamity  is  sin,  virtue 
is  my  only  rescue.  In  law  there  is  such  a  thing  as  an  inferential  danger  or 
technical  safety.  In  the  dark  Kansas  days,  there  was  such  a  thing  as  'constructive 
treason,'  a  treason  inferred  from  resemblance  to  real  treason — but  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  inferential  salvation,  a  constructive  release,  a  technical  escape.  The 
meaning  of  the  term  is  to  be  determined  by  its  location.  In  morals,  salvation  is 
spiritual  perfection.  The  forgiveness  of  past  sins,  the  payment  of  a  moral  debt, 
may  be  preliminaries,  or  attendant  events,  and  may,  by  their  importance,  aspire 


110       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

to  the  name  of  rescue;  but  these  titles  are  the  gift  of  a  gratitude  rather  than  of 
fact,  for  after  a  man's  sins  are  all  forgiven  or  atoned  for,  he  stands  forth,  still  lost, 
for  he  retains  the  low  nature  that  produces  sins  and  made  necessary  the  pardon, 
or  the  atonement.  If  to  us,  lost  in  a  wilderness,  without  a  sun,  or  a  star,  or  a 
path  to  guide,  there  comes  a  benevolent,  hermit,  a  dear  mentor,  and  leads  us  to  the 
right  path,  and  sets  our  faces  homeward,  he  is  at  once  our  saviour  ;  but  our  perfect 
salvation  will  come  from  our  going  that  path.  Our  going  and  the  mentor  combine 
in  the  escape,  and  yet  he  lives  in  memory  as  the  kind  saviour  of  our  bewildered 
hearts." 

Pretty  clear  that  he  regarded  doubt  upon  that  subject  as  at  least  pardonable. 
I  will  read  you  from  a  book  entitled  "Orthodoxy — its  truths  and  errors."  Its 
author  was  James  Freeman  Clarke: 

"The  gospel  of  Christ,  as  we  understand  it,  undertakes  to  effect  an  entire 
change,  a  radical  reformation,  in  human  character.  It  proposes  to  reform  his  life 
by  changing  the  heart,  by  giving  it  new  aims,  new  atfeetions,  new  aspirations, 
new  objects  of  love  and  pursuit.  Jesus  does  not  endeavor  to  alter  and  improve,  a 
little  here  and  a  little  there,  on  the  outside  of  the  character,  to  improve  a  little  our 
modes  of  action  in  this  and  the  other  particular;  hut  he  alters  the  character  by 
altering  the  fundamental  ideas  and  inspiring  inward  life.  This  wonderful  change, 
which  takes  place  in  the  profoundest  depth  of  our  nature,  under  the  influence  of 
the  gospel — this  great  event  of  life,  which  forms  the  tiirning  point  of  our  being  and 
history — is  called  in  the  New  Testament  'the  new  birth,'  'regeneration,'  'to  be 
bom  again,'  'to  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,'  'to  put  off  the 
old  man,'  'to  have  Christ  formed  within  us.' 

"  I  don't  think  Professor  Swing  ever  said  anything  more  precise  than  that." 
See  on  page  205.   , 

Those,  therefore,  who  could  find  God  nowhere  else,  found  him  in  Christ. 
Those  who  saw  Aim,  saw  their  Father.  As  when  through  a  window  we  behold 
the  heavens,  as  when  in  a  mirror  we  see  the  image  of  the  sun,  we  do  not  speak  of 
the  window  or  the  mirror,  but  say  that  we  see  the  sun  and  the  heavens.  So  those 
who  looked  at  Christ  said  that  they  saw  God. 

"The  Apostle  said  that  God  was  in  Christ;  and  this  was  wholly  true. 
Christians  afterward  said  that  Christ  was  God;  and  they  thought  they  were  only 
saying  the  same  thing.  They  said  that  Christ  had  a  divine  nature  as*well  as  a 
human  nature ;  and  in  this  also  there  was  no  essential  falsehood,  for  when  we 
speak  of  our  nature,  we  intend  merely  by  it  those  elements  of  character  which  are 
original  and  permanent,  which  are  not  acquired,  do  not  alter,  and  are  never  lost. 
God  dwelt  in  the  soul  of  Christ  thus  constantly,  thus  permanently.  The  word 
thus  became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us.  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  the 
prophets,  but  it  dwelt  in  Christ.  He  and  his  Father  were  able  to  see  God  mani- 
fested in  man  as  a  living  present  reality.  'Here,'  they  say,  'is  God;  we  have 
found  God.     He  is  in  Christ.     We  can  see  Him  there.' 

"  '  Is  it  any  wonder  that  men  should  have  called  Jesus  God  ?  that  they  should 
call  Him  so  still?  In  Him  truly  'dwelt  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily;'  and 
this  indwelling  spirit  expressed  itself  in  what  He  said  and  what  He  did.  When 
Jesus  speaks,  it  is  as  if  God  speaks.  When  Jesus  does  anything  it  is  as  if  we  saw 
God  do  it.  It  becomes  to  us  an  expression  of  the  Divine  character.  When  Jesus 
says  to  the  sinner,  'Go  and  sin  no  more,'  we  see  in  this  a  manifestation  not  merely 
of  His  own  compassion,  but  of  God's  forgiving  love;  and  when  He  dies,  although 
God  cannot,  j'ct  he  dies  according  to  the  Divine  will,  and  thus  expresses  God's 
willingness  to  sufl'er  the  redemption  of  the  world. 

"  Either  Christ  was  God,  united  with  a  human  soul,  or  He  was  a  human  soul, 
united  with  God.  When  Christ  uses  the  personal  pronoun  I,  He  must  mean  by 
that  I,  either  the  finite  man  or  the  infinite  God.  I  believe  the  Unitarian  is  right 
in  saying  that  this  personal  pronoun  I  always  refers  to  the  finite  being  and 
consciousness,  and  not  to  the  infinite  being." 

That  is  honest.  I  like  a  man  to  come  right  out  and  say  what  he  thinks.  It 
is  clearer  than  anything  David  Swing  ever  wrote ;  and  Professor  Swing  never 
wrote  or  said  a  word  with  regard  to  the  personality  of  Christ  that  James  Freeman 
Clarke  would  not  say  amen  to.  I  challenge  contradiction  of  tlie  allegation  that 
Professor  Sv/ing  did  not  make  any  statement  respecting  certain  doctrines  which 
could  be  construed  as  being  Unitarian.  The  deity  of  Christ  divides  the  theological 
world  into  two  hemisphei'cs  as  distinct  as  the  equator  divides  the  earth.  Is  the 
Presbytery  going  to  say  a  Presbyterian  minister  was  right  who  allowed  himself 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       Ill 

to  be  claimed  by  men  who  carry  on  their  banner  an  impeachment  of  the  royalty 
of  Christ,  and  to  be  so  claimed  without  contradiction  ?  Every  daily  newspaper 
came  forward  and  appealed  on  his  behalf  that  he  "had  cast  away  his  old 
doctrines."  Not  only  were  doubts  raised  in  this  way  as  to  Swing's  orthodoxy, 
but  two  years  ago  a  member  of  that  court  and  friend  of  the  accused  wrote  to  a 
ministerial  brother  in  which  he  said,  "  We  arc  greatly  troubled."  It  is  time  then 
for  the  accused  to  have  set  their  doubts  at  rest.  The  defendant's  plea  amounts 
only  to  a  reply  to  specification  1,  charge  1.  Swing  said  there  were  several 
doctrines  on  which  he  was  willing  to  meet  a  skeptical  world.  But  is  was  not  a 
question  as  to  his  meeting  the  skeptical  world  at  all,  but  is  was  a  question  as  to 
what  the  defendant  believed.  He  affirms  that  he  believes  in  the  divinity  of  Christ; 
not  the  deity  of  Christ.  Then  he  believes  in  the  inspiration  of  Scripture.  But 
could  it  be  shown  that  Professor  Swing  had  made  use  of  the  expression,  as  the 
Presbyterians  regarded  it,  as  necessary  to  good  standing  in  Church  ?  Chicago 
Presbytery  has  committed  itself  to  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  We 
mean  that  Mr.  McKaig  and  the  Ninth  Cliurcli  shall  not  be  condemned  and 
Professor  Swing  acquitted,  because  the  principles  in  both  cases  are  the  same.  Then 
Professor  Swing  says  he  believes  in  the  trinity.  The  Unitarians  believe  in  a  sort 
of  trinity,  as  did  Plato  and  the  Hindoos.  Did  Professor  Swing  believe  in  the 
three  persons  in  the  God-head  equal  in  power  and  glory?  Again,  he  says  he 
believes  in  the  mediation  of  Christ.  But  the  Unitarians  distinctly  aflirm  the  same 
thing.  He  says  he  believes  in  the  final  separation  of  the  wicked  from  the  good. 
So  do  the  Univursalists  and  Unitarians.  But  does  he  believe  in  everlasting 
punishment,  as  a  judicial  act,  by  God?  Taking  the  Confession  of  Faith,  which 
the  accused  sets  forward  as  the  platform  of  tlie  Presbyterian  Church,  you  might 
go  round  and  obtain  the  signature  thereto  of  every  Universalist  and  Unitarian. 
But  Professor  Swing  said  he  held  the  doctrines  in  evangelical  sense.  The  point, 
however,  is  as  to  what  "evangelical"  religion  is.  The  Unitarian  and  the  Uni- 
versalists  each  maintain  that  their  doctrines  are  evangelical.  Professor  Patton 
next  read  from  sermons  in  the  Chicago  Pulpit^  to  show  the  defendant's  equivo- 
cation.    At  page  67  he  said  : 

"The  good  deeds  of  yesterday,  the  good  deeds  of  to-day,  the  perfected  good- 
ness of  the  morrow,  a  deep  love  for  man,  a  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God, 
will  fill  the  whole  face  with  a  nobleness  and  happiness  to  which  earth  has  thus  far 
been  willingly  a  stranger.    This  will  be  a  salvation,  and  Christ  will  be  a  Saviour." 

At  page  12  there  was  the  following  passage,  which  has  been  oflPered  by  one  of 
defendant's  witnesses  to  prove  that  the  accused  taught  eternal  punishment : 

"  But  amid  all  the  fluctuations  of  patriotism,  the  law  of  death  for  treason  yet 
remains  written  upon  the  book  of  nations.  And  so  in  Christianity.  However  anv 
class  or  any  age  may  rise  above  the  influence  of  penalty  for  sin,  yet  punishment 
remains  a  perpetual  fact  in  its  economy  of  our  God.  Its  dark  cloud  will  rise  or 
fall,  according  to  the  quality  of  humanity.  Wherever  there  are  hearts  that  can 
see  no  goodness  in  holiness,  none  in  honesty,  and  in  charity,  none  in  Jesus  Christ, 
none  in  the  worship  of  God  ;  wherever  there  are  minds  incapable  of  being  led  by 
the  intrinsic  good  of  religion,  then  this  dark  cloud  of  divine  wrath  is  ready  to 
descend  and  to  envelop  with  its  thunders  the  soul  that  cannot  and  will  not  be  en- 
veloped by  love.  The  result  of  sin,  expressed  in  all  religions  by  the  word  hell,  is 
a  perpetual  influence,  liable  to  go  and  come  as  humanity  advances  or  retreats  in 
the  path  of  intelligence  and  morals — but  it  must  be  a  perpetual  fact  in  a  world  of 
beings  capable  of  being  immortal.  A  world  of  sin  must  be  a  world  of  punishment." 
Any  Unitarian  could  say  this.  The  witness  stopped  there,  but  I  will  continue. 
The  next  paragraph  says :  "In  days  when  men  cannot  whip  their  children,  in 
days  when  men  are  arrested  for  cruelty  to  dumb  beasts,  *  *  *  *  d.nyg  in 
which  Eussia  and  America  are  fresh  in  the  glory-wreaths  of  having  set  free 
60,000,000  of  slaves,  it  can  hardly  be  expected  that  the  pulpit,  ignoring  this  grand 
uprising  of  tenderness,  will  daily  paint  the  horrors  of  perdition  while  the  very 
street  is  being  enchanted  with  this  vision  of  love.  Oh,  what  a  betrayal  this  would 
be  of  the  pulpit's  trust  1  "  In  a  sermon  entitled  "  The  value  of  yesterday,"  pub- 
lished in  the  Chicago  Pulpit,  he  says : 

"  Yesterday  is  full  of  past  usefulness  and  of  its  ways  and  means,  full  of  tears 
and  their  causes  and  cures.  In  that  shadowy  domain  there  stands  the  cross,  and 
there  is  the  Saviour  dying  for  the  vast  myriads  of  a  race." 

The  question  whether  that  is  evangelical  all  depends  upon  what  you  mean  by 

"  Hvincy  nf  mf>n   "       Tn  Viia  Tinvt.  oorMnnn      "SnlwofinTi  a-nr\  '^Xnfa^^^■^r  )>  T\atra  BK    in 


112       ARGUMENTS  FOR   TEE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

which  he  brings  out  the  very  idea  that  the  use  of  words  does  not  necessarily  con- 
vey an  orthodox  meaning,  since  words  may  convey  an  ambiguous  sense,  Professor 
Swing  says : 

"  In  this  shadow  realm  we  would  not  wish  to  throw  down  the  vast  response 
that  '  he  that  believes  '  shall  safely  pass  the  mysterious  bourne;  for  faith  is  such  a 
broad,  indefinable  word  that  to  substitute  it  for  the  term  salvation  would  be  to 
leave  us  still  in  the  air,  obscure.  Faith  in  Christ  would  be  a  phrase  still  more 
indefinite,  for  not  only  has  faith  many  forms,  but  many  forms  also  attach  to  the  per- 
son of  Christ.  He  was  a  sacrifice,  but  sacrifice  has  many  significations.  He  was 
an  example.  He  was  a  mediator.  He  was  an  unfolding  of  the  divine  image. 
Faith  in  Christ  is  a  phrase  which  is  at  once  seen  to  be  made  of  words  that  are  like 
the  bits  of  colored  glass  in  the  kaleidoscope,  forming  many  pictures  and  all  very 
beautiful." 

This  shows  how  he  derogates  the  standard  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
next  passage  has  been  quoted  by  one  of  the  witnesses  for  the  defense  to  prove  that 
Professor  Swing  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment. 

(The  sentence  referred  to  was  one  of  those  read  by  Elder  Lee  on  Friday  last.) 

Damnation,  according  to  him,  simply  means  with  him  the  natural  consequence 
of  a  man's  sin — if  a  man  sins,  he  suflFers.  In  sermon  "Soul  Culture,"  page  137, 
he  says:  "  To  live  a  life  amid  such  surroundings  as  earth  now  possesses,  must  be 
to  live  a  career  of  preparation  for  a  world  more  blessed.  To  lose  one's  soul  must 
be  to  pass  through  this  sublime  temple  without  drinking  in  its  virtue  and  holy 
worship,  and  not  only  to  have  rejected  the  true,  but  to  have  suffered  the  falsehoods 
of  society  to  rush  upon  the  delicately  strung  harp  of  the  spirit  and  break  its  strings 
and  hush  its  melodies." 

He  may  believe  that  "  he  who  refuses  to  believe  may  be  damned,"  but  it  is  a 
very  rosewater  way  of  putting  it.     [Laughter.] 

Next  we  come  to  the  third  specification.  A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  this 
specification.  This  specification  has  reference  to  three  facts.  The  facts  are 
admitted  ;  the  simple  question  is  in  reference  to  their  criminality.  The  first  was 
the  delivery  of  a  lecture  in  Mary  Price  Collier's  Chapel.  Second,  publishing  the 
sentiments  in  the  Lake-side  Mojdhly.  Third,  his  publication  of  a  sermon  in  eulogy 
of  John  Stuart  Mill.  If  any  Unitarians  were  present  they  would  appreciate  my 
zeal  for  the  points  of  dilFerence  which  separate  me  from  them  as  an  indication  of 
unkind  feeling  towards  that  denomination.  After  expressing  his  admiration  fur 
the  learning  of  Unitarian  ministers,  the  prosecutor  said :  "If  it  was  wrong  for 
Professor  Swing  to  give  his  name  and  influence  to  Unitarianism,  it  was  not  the 
less  wrong  because  the  society  'in  whose  behalf  he  lectured  was  about  to  erect  a 
chapel  in  memory  of  a  woman  whom  he  admired  and  whose  Ohristian  character 
has  never  been  in  dispute.  So  that  the  question  reverts  to  the  naked  issue,  whether 
it  is  right  for  a  Presbyterian  minister  with  the  vows  of  a  Presbyterian  minister 
upon  him,  and  having  promised  to  be  faithful  and  zealous  in  maintaining  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  and  the  truths  of  gospel,  and  who  has  his  name  assailed  day  after 
day  in  the  public  press,  with  an  enterprise  which  has  for  its  sole  object  the  erection 
of  a  chapel,  in  which  chapel  will  be  a  gospel  preached  deriding  the  deity  of  Christ, 
calling  this  question  "His  co-eternity  with  the  faith."  Is  it  right,  that  is  the 
question?  His  position,  however,  is  that  a  Unitarian  preaches  the  gospel,  and, 
having  these  opinions,  he  maintains  it  is  right  to  exchange  courtesies  with  those 
sects.  How  would  Professor  Swing  go  about  the  conversion  of  a  Unitarian  after 
what  he  has  here  stated  ?  Why,  he  could  not  do  it. 

I  will  pass  to  the  next  charge  and  read  from  the  Lake-side  Monthly,  page  337. 

"Chicago  is  an  attempt  at  evangelism  ;  all  the  details  of  the  creeds  between 
Jerusalem  and  Geneva  seem  forgotten.  It  has  been  driven  to  what  is  called  a 
practical  gospel — driven  by  its  conviction  that  in  virtue  more  than  theology  religion 
lay,  and  by  the  failure  of  didactic  theology  elsewhere.  All  the  way  from  Kobert 
Collyer  to  Kobert  Patterson,  the  preaching  is  practical,  free  from  sectarianism, 
full  of  persuasion,  though  love.  What  sect  is  honored  by  the  membership  of 
Farwell  and  Moody,  few  know,  because  all  names  are  forgotten  in  the  more 
general  title  of  Christians.  ' 

The  city  being  the  halting  place  for  a  great  army  of  business  men,  and  the 
public  sanctioning  a  blinking  Madonna,  the  local  gospel  was  compelled  to  become 
a  mode  of  virtue  rather  than  a  jumble  of  doctrines." 

I  don't  think  Dr.  Patterson  thinks  it  any  great  compliment  to  be  put  into  the 
same  category  with  Kobert  Collyer,  because  1  know  his  theology  is  the  antipode 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       113 

of  Robert  Collyer's.  "What  would  be  the  effect  of  that  article  upon  the  mind  of  an 
unprejudiced  reader?  Would  you  think  David  Swing  was  a  Presbyterian  ?  "With 
ail  respect  tollobertCollyer.and  his  denomination,  I  wish  to  say  that  if  my  gospel 
is  the  gospel,  there  is  no  other. 

He  is  comparing  Chicago  with  other  cities.  He  is  comparing  Chicago  gospel 
with  the  gospels  of  other  cities.  They  differ.  Chicago's  gospel  is  a  mode  of  virtue, 
while  the  others  are  a  jumble  of  doctrines.  Was  this  kind  to  say  of  the  city  of 
Pittsburgh,  where  there  are  so  many  Presbyterians?  It  means  that  the  gospel  says 
to  be  good — it  says  nothing  about  the  deified  Christ. 

You  know  tbat  John  Stuart  Mill  grew  up  without  any  religious  convictions 
whatever  ;  you  know  that  especial  care  was  taken  with  his  education  that  he 
should  have  no  religious  convictions.  When  he  grew  up  he  espoused  a  system  of 
philosophy  which  was  fatal  to  all  religion.  From  even  what  we  know  of  him,  thei'e 
is  not  the  slightest  ground  to  doubt  that  he  was  an  atheist.-  Yet,  upon  his  death, 
Professor  Swing  preached  a  laudatory  sermon  upon  him,  which  was  publi.shedin 
the  morning  pajitrs  of  the  19th  of  May,  1873,  taking  for  his  text  the  very  signi- 
ficant words,  "One  star  differeth  from  another  in  glory." 

(From  tliis  sermon,  which  has  been  so  many  times  gone  over  and  raked  up 
that  the  public  is  tolerably  familiar  with  it,  Professor  Patton  read  at  considerable 
length,  and  commented.) 

It  is  not  difficult  to  get  the  sentiment  of  that  sermon.  He  differed  from  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  wherefore  a  shadow  was  cast  over  him.  This  shadow 
would  have  been  removed  if  he  had  cultivated  the  religious  sentiment  to  the  extent 
that  Victor  Cousin  did  ! 

He  knows  as  well  as  I  do  that  John  Stuart  Mill  founded  the  Westminster 
Review,  which  is  atheism;  he  knows  he  was  a  prominent  contributor  to  the  Fort- 
nightly Review.  He  knows  he  led  in  the  van  of  that  philosophic  school  of  thought 
which  carries  away  with  it  the  very  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity  and  all 
religion.  There  never  was  a  greater  insult  offered  to  the  Presbyterian  Church 
than  when  David  Swing  stood  up  in  a  Chicago  pulpit  and  preached  a  sermon  that 
was  calculated  to  produce  the  notion  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers  that  it  was  not  so 
bad  a  thing  to  be  John  Stuart  Mill  after  all  1  [Applause  to  the  right  of  the 
Moderator's  stand  ] 

We  will  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  next  charge.  A  man  comes  into  the 
church  of  his  own  free  will.  He  is  not  drawn  into  it.  Has  he  no  right  to  remain 
in  it  when  he  has  ceased  to  be  in  accord  with  it  ? 

Listen  to  this : 

"  Over  the  idea  that  two  and  two  make  four  no  blood  has  been  shed ;  but 
over  the  insinuation  that  three  may  be  one,  and  one  three,  there  has  ever  been  a 
demand  for  external  influence  to  brace  up  for  the  work  the  frail  logical  faculty." 

What  does  that  mean  ?  Doesn't  it  mean  that  he  is  using  the  very  objection  of 
the  Unitarian,  and  saying  that  three  are  one  and  one  is  three  ? 

"It  is  probable  that  no  man  has  been  put  to  death  for  heresy  regarding  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  But  when  a  church  comes  along  with  its  legitimacy  and 
ks  five  points,  or  with  the  prayer-book  or  its  infant  baptism  or  eternal  procession 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  then  comes  the  demand  for  the  rack  and  the  stake,  to  make 
up  in  terrorism  what  is  wanting  in  evidence." 

Would  a  man  who  honestly  believed  in  these  doctrines  ridicule  them  thus  ? 
Would  you,  Brother  Kittredge,  do  it  ?  I  would  like  to  see  Professor  Swing  go  to 
one  of  the  lady  members  of  his  church  and  ask  why  her  infant  was  not  baptized. 
Would  you  blame  her  if  she  says,  she  does  not  believe  in  infant  baptism  ? 

Pass  to  page  23  of  the  same  book. 

"Eubric,  surplice,  prayer-book,  two  souls  of  Christ,  the  Eastern  time,  the 
transfiguration  light,  the  election,  the  predestination,  the  laying  on  of  hands,  all 
count  no  more  with  the  thoughtful  historian  seeking  for  the  merits  of  an  age  than 
counted  the  costumes  of  those  eras  or  the  carriages  they  drove." 

Take  predestination  out  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  what  is  left  to  it  ? 
It  is  the  distinctive  doctrine  of  the  church. 

Go  to  page  65  of  the  Chicago  Pulpit  : 

*'  Elizabeth  imprisoned  for  life  all  who  conducted  religious  service  without 
using  her  prayer-book.  Persons  not  believing  in  bishops  were  branded  with  an 
iron.  As  internal  piety  was  little  dreamed  of  as  being  a  religious  test,  it  was  as 
absurd  from  man  as  from  God.  God  was  a  Being  partial  to  a  prayer-book  or  to 
a  bishop.    Forms  were  everything.    Knox  declared  that  one  mass  was  more  fear- 


114       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

ful  to  him  than  ten  thousand  armed  enemies  landed  in  any  part  of  the  realm, 
never  harboring  for  an  instant  the  idea  that  beneath  the  service  of  the  mass  there 
might  be  a  pious  heart.  There  was  no  weighing  of  soul.  It  was  all  a  listening  to 
words,  and  a  crowding  to  the  fagot  those  whose  words  deviated  a  hair's  breadth 
from  the  model  held  in  the  hand  of  some  bloated  ruler  or  licentious  priest.  In 
this  awful  reign  of  iron  sentences,  little  girls  of  childhood  innocence,  and  mothers 
whose  love  is  an  emblem  to  earth  of  love  infinite,  wont  down  to  early  tombs  in 
the  double  agony  of  flesh  and  heart.  But  the  heart  of  a  dove  counted  nothing  in 
an  age  of  vowels  and  consonants.  Catholic  words  killed  thousands  of  Protestants, 
and  Protestant  words  killed  thousands  of  Catholics.  All  imaginable  doctrines 
have  in  the  long,  bloody  period  been  made  a  ground  of  life  or  death.  Words 
about  baptism,  words  about  the  Trinity,  words  about  the  Pope,  words  about 
transubstantiation,  words  about  the  Virgin  Mary,  words  about  the  Eucharist, 
words  ab'uit  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  about  astronomy,  have  exposed  the  body 
to  the  stake  and  the  soul  to  perdition." 

In  the  sermon  on  the  "Influence  of  Democracy  on  Christian  Doctrine,"  Pro- 
fessor Swing  says : 

"This  perpetual  industry  amid  external  pursuits  also  diverts  the  mind  from 
the  study  of  mysteries  and  to  the  acceptance  and  enjoyment  of  facts,  and  hence 
the  public  mind  turns  away  from  predestination  and  reprobation  and  absolutism. 
******  In  this  abandonment  there  is  no  charge  of  falsehood  cast  upon 
the  old  mysteries ;  they  may  or  they  may  not  be  true ;  there  is  only  a  passing 
them  by  as  not  being  in  the  line  of  the  current  wish  or  taste,  raiment  for  a  past 
age,  perhaps  for  a  future,  but  not  acceptable  in  the  present." 

Then  on  page  86,  in  a  sermon  on  "Salvation  and  Morality:" 

"Their  hope  of  heaven  is  based  upon  faith  alone.  The  righteousness  they 
dream  of  must  be  wholly  an  imputed  righteousness." 

In  another  sermon,  "St.  Paul  and  the  Golden  Age :" 

"Look  at  St.  Paul's  third  idea!  A  new  life,  a  new  creature !  It  will  be  the 
development  of  this  idea  that  will  announce  the  dawn  of  a  perfect  civilization  and 
a  golden  age.  The  church  has  tried  the  religion  of  dogmas.  The  Scotch  Church 
reached  a  creed  of  4,000  articles,  but  tifaat  church,  and  all  branches  of  all  churches, 
have  furnished  thousands  of  men  for  every  branch  of  dishonesty  and  crime." 

In  "Soul  Culture,"  page  135,  he  says: 

"It  is  not  the  trinity  that  molds  human  life,  but  the  doctrine  of  God.  It  is 
not  the  eternal  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  may  shape  the  human  soul,  b-i  , 
the  fact  of  an  ever-present  spirit.  That  Christ  was  eternally  begot  of  the  Path.f 
is  a  doctrine  that  cannot  be  appreciated  in  any  way  by  man's  heart,  but  the  Christ 
of  the  New  Testament  can  be  grasped  and  loved,  and  hence  the  responsibility  and 
success  and  beauty  of  human  life  will  all  be  related  to  the  latter  of  these  statements, 
and  be  wholly  discharged  from  all  the  former  without  penalty  or  cost." 

Professor  Patton,  in  concluding  his  remarks  for  the  day,  proceeded  to  satisfy 
his  audience  that  a  departure  from  the  symbols  of  the  church  was  an  offense  to  be 
visited  with  censure  on  the  offenders.  He  quoted  the  case  of  Heads  vs.  Sanders, 
tried  by  the  English  Privy  Council  in  1842,  which  was  the  case  of  a  minister  who 
preached  against  confirmation  as  practiced  by  the  Established  Church.  The 
verdict  of  the  Court  of  Arches  was  that  the  offender  be  deprived  of  his  ecclesias- 
tical benefice;  and,  said  Professor  Patton,  according  to  the  reasoning  pursued  in 
iudging  that  English  case.  Professor  Swing  cannot  complain  if  we  put  him  in  the 
position  in  which  he  would  have  been  if,  being  a  candidate  for  ordination  vows, 
it  was  known  that  he  had  uttered  the  sentiments  with  which  he  was  charged.  This 
Presbytery  would  not  ordain  a  man  if,  in  his  last  sermon,  he  proclaimed  such 
views  as  have  been  enunciated  by  the  defendant  in  this  case,  and  by  all  that  is 
right  and  just  Professor  Swing  ought  to  be  placed  in  the  same  position  as  he  would 
be  were  he  a  candidate  for  ordination  unless  a  proper  retractation  is  made.  But  I 
am  aware  that  there  will  be  those  with  whom  this  decision  of  the  English  court 
may  not  have  much  weight.  I  will,  therefore,  read  from  the  new  Digest  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  which  every  man  of  us  will  swear  by.  It  is  a  principle  of 
our  form  of  government  that  doctrinal  truth  is  of  great  importance,  and  that  for-  _ 
mulated  truth  is  necessary  to  the  existence  of  religious  organizations.  I  will  road ' 
the  fourth  section  of  Discipline,  and  I  claim  that  Professor  Swing  has  contravened 
this  principle,  and  having  done  so,  has  made  himself  liable  to  censure,  and  that 
the  knowledge  of  this  fact  being  before  this  Presbytery,  it  will  be  delinquent  if  it 
passes  it  by  without  censure.     The  fourth  section  is  as  follows  : 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       115 

"That  truth  is  in  order  to  goodness  and  the  great  touchstone  of  truth,  its 
tendency  to  promote  holiness  according  to  our  Saviour's  rule.  '  By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them.'  And  that  no  opinion  can  be  either  more  pernicious  or  absurd 
than  that  which  brings  truth  and  falsehood  upon  a  level,  and  represents  it  as  of  no 
consequence  what  a  man's  opinions  are.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  persuaded  that 
there  is  an  inseparable  connection  between  faith  and  practice,  truth  and  duty. 
Otherwise  it  would  be  of  no  consequence  either  to  discover  truth  or  to  embrace  it." 

If  Professor  Swing  has  not  ridiculed  vital  truths  and  put  a  falsehood,  he  has 
certainly  misrepresented  them,  and  I  say  that  it  is,  therefore,  impossible  for  him 
to  continue  within  the  pale  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Now,  we  find  that 
principle  is  not  a  dead  letter  ;  and  if  it  were  a  dead  letter,  it  is  time  for  us  to  gal- 
vanize it ;  for  in  a  deliverance  of  the  General  Assembly,  quoted  from  the  Book  of 
Discipline,  page  64,  it  is  said: 

"This  confession  of  faith,  adopted  by  our  church,  contains  a  system  of  doc" 
trines  professedly  believed  by  the  people  and  the  pastors  under  the  care  of  the 
General  Assembly  ;  nor  can  it  be  traduced  by  any  in  the  communion  of  our  church 
without  subjecting  the  erring  parties  to  that  salutary  discipline  which  hath  for  its 
object  the  maintenance  of  the  peace  and  purity  of  the  church  under  the  goyern- 
ment  of  her  Great  Master." 

If  this  instruction  was  given  to  the  congregation,  surely  it  ought  to  apply 
with  double  force  to  those  who  are  the  acknowledged  servants  of  God  and  commis- 
sioned teachers  of  the  people.  In  1825  a  subsequent  deliverance  was  made,  in  the 
following  form : 

"  The  committee  appointed  on  an  overture  respecting  the  consistency  of  admit- 
ting to  its  church  ministers  who  manifest  a  decided  hostility  to  ecclesiastical  creeds, 
confessions,  and  formulas,  make  the  following  report,  which  was  adopted,   viz: 

1.  That  the  constitution,  as  is  well  known,  expressly  requires  of  all  candidates 
for  admission  a  solemn  declaration  that  they  sincerely  receive  and  adopt  the  con- 
fession of  faith  of  this  church  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures. 

2.  That  the  last  Assembly,  in  a  report  of  their  committee,  have  so  explicitly 
and  fully  declared  the  sentiments  of  the  church  in  regard  to  her  ecclesiastical 
standard,  and  all  within  her  communion  who  may  traduce  them,  that  no  further 
expression  of  our  views  on  this  subject  is  deemed  necessary." 

^^.Moderator — Professor  Swing,  in  the  passages  which  I  have  adduced  from 
his  writings,  has  so  traduced  by  ridicule,  by  irony,  and  by  insinuation  the  scriptural 
doctrines  of  our  church,  that  the  natural  eflFect  of  such  language  on  the  minds  of 
those  who  hear  him  can  only  be  to  breed  skepticism  or  to  lead  them  to  treat  those 
doctrines  with  contempt.  Now,  if  Professor  Swing  had  come  into  this  court  and 
said,  "I  admit  the  charge;  I  confess  I  have  used  uncertain  language  on  vital 
points,  which  I  regret,  and  now  that  my  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact,  I 
promise  not  to  use  such  in  time  to  come,"  the  members  of  Presbytery  would  have 
felt  very  different  on  the  subject  from  what  they  now  do.  But  how  does  he  act? 
So  far  from  expressing  any  regret  or  having  any  thing  to  say  by  way  of  retraction 
he  comes  into  court ;  he  assumes  a  defiant  attitude,  and  does  not  retract  the  senti- 
ments, and  goes  on  to  make  still  more  insulting  statements  in  reference  to  the  doc- 
trines of  our  church.  If  the  public  don't  believe  that  the  Presbyterian  Church 
does  not  hold  to  infant  damnation  it  is  not  because  Professor  Swing  has  not  tried 
to  make  that  impression.  If  any  impression  is  made  on  the  public  mind,  it  is  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  either  in  its  formulated  standard  or  by  its  representative 
men,  does  teach  the  doctrine  of  infant  damnation.  I  say,  with  some  knowledge 
of  the  doctrine,  the  representative  men,  and  the  history  of  the  church,  that  such 
a  statement  is  not  true.     [Applause.] 

The  Rev.  A.  E.  Kittredge — I  wish  to  enter  my  protest  against  this  applause. 
It  has  three  times  occurred.     It  is  unfortunate  that  such  applause  is  made. 

Professor  Patton — I  am  in  thorough  sympathy  with  the  statement  of  Mr. 
Kittredge.  Nothing  is  less  desired  by  me  than  such  expressions.  I  am  glad  to 
know,  however,  that  there  are  men  in  the  Presbytery  who  have  such  an  apprecia- 
tion for  the  doctrines  and  standards  that  at  the  risk  of  being  discourteous  they 
express  themselves  in  this  way.  [Laughter.]  I  say  that  Professor  Swing  has 
traduced  our  doctrines  with  respect  to  future  punishment,  fatalism,  and  salvation 
by  faith.  We  are  charged  with  holding  such  views  with  respect  to  future  destiny 
as  to  have  led  to  infidelity.     Do  the  Presbytery  mean  to  permit  that  plea  to  go  on 


116       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

record  without  giving  it  their  denial  ?  In  view  of  the  plea  Professor  Swing  has 
made  before  the  Presbytery,  are  you  willing  to  say  that  he  is  a  faithful  minister 
and  a  fair  representative  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  you  under- 
stand them  and  as  set  forth  in  the  good  old  symbols  of  the  church  ? 

Presbytery  then  adjourned  until  this  (Wednesday)  morning  at  9:30  a.  m. 

WEDNESDAY,  MAT  13th. 

At  9:30  forenoon,  Presbytery  re-assembled,  very  full  as  to  attendance,  both 
clerical  and  lay.  The  margins  about  the  judicial  settees  were  crowded  by  spectators. 
No  previous  day  had  seen  a  larger  number  of  interested  outsiders.  And  it  was  a 
notable  point,  that  Professor  Patton's  side  of  the  house  was  better  filled 
than  it  had  been  at  any  previous  time  since  the  trial  began.  His  friends,  whose 
faces  were  elongated  at  the  close  of  last  week,  were  considerably  cheered  Tuesday 
afternoon,  and  came  to  the  ground  in  the  morning  with  visages  mantled  in  satis- 
factory expectation.  Professor  Swing  sat  on  the  front  row  of  seats,  quiet  and 
pleasant,  as  his  wont  is  to  look.  Dr.  Patterson  was  at  his  right  elbow,  three  or 
four  little  pocket  memorandum  books  and  a  few  sheets  of  paper  in  his  hand  (he 
"took  notes"  after  the  arguments  began  again),  smiling  and  benign.  To  the  Pro- 
fessor's left  sat  the  Kev.  Mr.  Wakeman — a  thin,  gray-haired,  and  contemplative 
old  gentleman,  who  has  said  very  little  in  the  case,  but  contented  himself  with 
sticking  to  a  seat,  which  left  no  doubt  as  to  which  side  his  sympathies  were  on, 
and  keeping  up  a  careful  attention.  The  Kev.  Mr.  Noyes  removed  himself  one 
row  back,  took  copious  notes,  and  made  no  remarks  except  occasional  interrogative 
ones,  as  to  "what  page"  the  prosecutor  read  from.  Dr.  Beecher,  who  is  only  sit- 
ting in  Presbytery  by  courtesy,  yet  whose  voice  has  frequently  been  raised  in 
council,  removed  himself  to  the  Patton  end  of  the  middle  settee.  His  very  patri- 
archal visage,  long,  white  beard,  and  black  velvet  skull-cap  made  him  a  prominent 
figure,  and  his  shift  of  sympathy  and  position  attracted  unanimous  attention. 

Little  Mr.  Brobston  and  the  Kev.  Mr.  W.  F.  Wood,  of  Peotone,  Professor 
Patton's  most  zealous  and  worthy  supporters,  were  in  their  usual  places.  The  Kev. 
B.  E.  S.  Ely,  who  has  acted  (far  as  Professor  Patton  would  let  him)  as  counsel  for 
the  prosecution — whose  experience  as  a  California  lawyer  crops  out  boldly  in  the 
legal  points  put  now  and  then,  sat  near  Professor  Patton,  who  stood  up,  facing  the 
Presbytery  in  front  of  the  Secretary's  desk.  A  little  2x4  table  before  him  was 
covered  with  books,  each  volume  presenting  a  very  ragged  looking  end,  by  reason 
of  the  numerous  little  slips  of  paper  inserted  between  the  leaves,  marking  places 
to  be  referred  to  or  read.  His  watch  lay  open  beside  the  books,  and  a  little  pitcher 
of  water  stood  within  bis  easy  reach.  He  seldom  troubled  it.  His  voice,  his  man- 
ner, his  look,  and  his  throat  were  all  dry  ;    be  rejected  the  notion  of  moisture. 

It  is  a  question  very  frequently  asked :  "What  does  Patton  look  like  ?''  To 
answer  this  with  strict  accuracy  would  be  to  cause  his  friends  a  pang,  and  to  sur- 
prise himself.  He  looks  like  Death,  dismounted.  He  is  every  iota  the  book-man, 
the  introspective  student.  He  is  young — not  above  35  years  of  age ;  his  features 
are  regular,  and  his  form  erect.  But  he  is  oh,  so  thin,  so  spare,  so  feeble  in  frame, 
so  bloodless.  Sunken  checks,  mild  grayish-blue  eyes  peering  thoughtfully  through 
spectacles ;  heavy,  straight  hair  of  the  peculiar  nondescript  hue  that  is  neither 
brown  nor  flaxen,  but  a  sort  of  unimpressive  compromise  between  the  two,  worn  in 
ordinary  shape,  not  long,  nor  brushed  behind  his  ears;  shadowy  side-whiskers 
that  scarcely  encroach  upon  his  face  ;  a  long,  straight  mouth,  with  only  the  least 
tinge  of  color  in  the  lips,  and  that  of  a  leaden  cast ;  a  prominent,  acquiline  nose. 
That  is  his  head.  He  wears  black,  neat  and  unobtrusive — the  coat  hanging  loosely 
about  his  body — an  immaculate  shirt  front,  and  a  narrow  white  tie.  His  arms 
look  longer  than  they  are,  on  account  of  their  excessive  attenuation  ;  his  hands  are 
small,  delicate,  and  white.  Eirst  of  all,  he  is  a  gentleman.  In  conversation  he  is 
witty,  quick,  and  pleasant.  No  one  can  approach  him  and  talk  with  him  without 
gathering  a  favorable  impression.  He  is  polite  in  that  fine  quality  of  politeness 
which  is  the  result  of  "good  breeding"  from  infancy  up — the  natural,  easy  polite- 
ness of  a  gentlemen  born  and  reared  among  gentlemen  and  ladies.  His  use  of 
language  is  superb,  and  his  delivery  clear,  distinct,  and  elegant.  There  is  no  doubt 
in  the  world  that  he  is  perfectly  sincere  in  his  beliefs,  and  enthusiastic  in  the 
heavy  cause  he  is  shouldering.  When  he  becomes  worked  up  in  his  theme,  he 
speaks  with  a  fluency  and  earnest  vehemence  that  is  remarkable,  and  commands 
attention  from  all  within  sound  of  his  voice,  which  is  not  a  whit  musical,  being 
parched  and  full — a  sort  of  dusty  tenor. 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   TEE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       117 

Professor  Swing  is  his  opposite.  Nearly  every  one  in  Chicago  is  familiar 
with  his  browned,  homely,  attractive  face.  During  the  months  he  preached  at 
McVicker's  Theater  his  short,  firm-built  figure  became  familiar  to  thousands  who 
never  saw  him  while  he  officiated  in  his  own  church  on  the  North  Side.  A  high, 
open  forehead,  protruding  chin,  mouth  that  was  made  to  utter  warm  humanity, 
deeply-lined  cheeks,  long,  dark  hair,  worn  with  negligence — the  last  man  in  the 
world  one  would  suppose  full  of  the  tenderest  sentiments,  the  most  beautiful  and 
winning  language,  the  smoothest,  most  charming  poesy  ;  yet  a  good  man  if  ever 
one  carried  goodness  in  his  countenance — a  man  little  children  would  love  at  first 
eight  and  ever  after. 

He  has  very  little  to  say.  Once  in  a  while  he  has  asked  a  pertinent  question 
— a  playful  sounding  interrogatory  with  a  sting  under  its  surface.  Mr.  Noyes 
has  plead  his  side  of  the  controversy,  and  plead  it  well. 

It  was  surprising  to  see  with  what  eager  avidity  outside  clergymen — shepherds 
of  other  denominational  flocks — watched  the  proceedings  and  listened  to  the  spea- 
ker. They  stray  in  and  out  every  day,  and  crane  their  necks  forward  to  catch  all 
the  points.  The  Baptists  were  well  represented  yesterday:  Dr.  Kavlin,  the  Kev. 
John  Gordon,  and  several  others  were  there.  Dr.  Thomas,  of  the  first  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  visited  during  the  afternoon. 

So  did  Aid.  Dixon.  John  V.  Farwell  has  been  a  rather  close  auditor  during 
the  whole  trial.  Faces  of  gentlemen  whose  names  are  current  in  Western  fame 
dot  the  assemblage  alway. 

It  is  an  historic  occasion,  and  the  grave  body  sitting  there  as  an  ecclesiastical 
court  feels  the  tremendous  weight  of  its  responsibility.  Barring  the  debates  over 
the  minutes,  which  used  up  the  forenoons  of  the  two  first  days,  they  have  been 
solemn  and  dignified  to  a  point  that  was  somber. 

Court  (so  to  speak)  having  been  opened,  Professor  Patton  arose  and  resumed 
his  address.     He  said  : 

I  will  resume  mj"  address  at  the  point  where  I  left  off  yesterday  at  the  consi- 
deration of  the  fifth  specification.  If  the  allegation  set  forth  in  this  specification 
can  be  proved  it  is  a  very  serious  charge,  and  one  of  such  gravity  that  this  Pres- 
bytery cannot  aflford  to  overlook  it  and  pass  it  by.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
doctrines  stated  in  this  specification  form  the  basis  on  which  all  churches  which 
have  the  right  to  be  called  evangelical  must  stand.  One  of  the  elders  of  the  Fourth 
Church  read  this  specification  as  expressing  his  views  of  what  evangelical  preaching 
is.  His  ideas  of  that  doctrine  are  embraced  in  evangelical  truth.  It  is  affirmed  in 
the  specification  that  Prof.  Swing  has  omitted  to  preach  or  teach  these  doctrines. 
Our  church  has  taken  special  care  to  invest  its  ministry  with  its  sanction.  When 
a  candidate  comes  forward  to  be  licensed,  he  answers  in  the  affirmative  that  he 
believes  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  JSew  Testaments  as  the  Word  of  God  and 
the  rule  and  faith  of  practice,  and  also  that  he  receives  the  Confession  of  Faith  as 
embodying  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  Word  of  God.  When  he  subsequently 
comes  forward  for  ordination  and  is  about  to  assume  a  pastoral  charge,  he  is  called 
upon  to  answer  another  series  of  questions,  by  which  he  promises  to  preach  and 
maintain  these  doctrines  and  the  Confession  of  Faith.  Now,  if  I  were  to  ask  this 
Presbytery  what  they  consider  to  be  a  faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  the 
Christian  ministry  and  a  full  observance  of  our  ordination  vows,  they  would 
answer  without  a  dissenting  voice,  the  preaching  of  the  doctrines  set  forth  in  this 
allegation.  If  Christianity  has  any  claim  upon  us  at  all,  it  grounds  itself  on  the 
fact  that  Christ  saved  us  by  the  shedding  of  His  precious  blood.  Therefore,  when 
we  find  a  minister  preaching  without  making  much  mention  of  Christ's  blood, 
when  we  don't  find  the  scarlet  thread  weaving  its  way  throughout  the  whole  web 
of  gospel  ministrations,  I  am  very  apt  to  be  suspicious  that  something  is  wrong  in 
reference  to  his  views  of  the  gospel.  This  is  true  of  Professor  Swing,  that  he  says 
nothing  about  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  does  not  preach  that  we  are  redeemed  by 
the  precious  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Another  cardinal  feature  of  the  gospel  system  is 
that  we  are  justified  and  made  righteous  by  faith.  This  doctrine  is  not  found  in 
Professor  Swing's  preaching,  and  occupies  no  place  in  his  doctrinal  system.  Indeed, 
as  I  shall  hereafter  show,  he  preaches  in  direct  contradiction  to  this  doctrine. 
I  still  further  affirm  that  if  Christianity  has  any  special  claim  upon  us,  if  our 
missionary  enterprises  are  to  bo  carried  on  with  any  zeal,  then  the  doctrines  that 
lie  as  the  reason  for  those  enterprises  and  constitute  the  basis  of  all  missionary  effort 
are  included  in  this.  "There  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  among  men  whereby 
we  caa  be  saved."     It  was  this  idea  which  led  Paul  to  be  a  missionary  to  the  Gen- 


118       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION   AND  DEFENSE. 

tnes,  and  it  is  this  idea  which  constitutes  the  ground  and  reason  for  the  existence 
of  the  Christian  ministry  and  the  perpetuation  of  the  Christian  system.  I  affirm 
that  this  doctrine  is  not  taught  in  Professor  Swing's  sermons,  and  will  affirm  that 
he  has  preached  the  contrary  doctrine,  either  directly  or  by  necessary  implication. 

There  are  only  three  possible  standards  of  faith.  There  is  first  the  standard 
of  Rationalism,  which  makes  the  human  mind  its  own  basis  and  individual  judg- 
ment the  criterion  of  truth.  Another  is  the  Romish  doctrine,  which  makes  an 
organization  the  standard  of  faith,  and  which  says  that  a  certain  doctrine  is  truth 
because  a  given  organization,  inspired  by  God's  spirit,  and  therefore  infallible, 
has  said  it  is  true.  The  cardinal  feature  of  Protestantism  is,  as  opposed  to  Ration- 
alism on  the  one  hand  and  Romanism  on  the  other,  that  the  Bible  is  the  standard 
of  faith  and  practice,  that  what  it  says  is  true,  that  when  it  says  anything  it  is 
sufficient  authority  and  we  need  not  go  elsewhere.  I  affirm  that  Professor  Swing 
does  not  teach  this  doctrine,  that  the  Scriptures  are  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 
and  that  they  are  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

I  will  be  told  in  reply  that  we  cannot  expect  all  men  to  preach  alike ;  you 
must  not  undertake  to  suppress  a  man's  individuality,  to  model  a  man  in  your 
mould.  Certainly  not  1  God  forbid.  If  a  man  is  emotional  in  his  nature,  then  I 
like  his  preaching  to  show  it.  If  a  man  is  dry  in  his  nature  he  cannot  help  it — he 
must  do  the  best  he  can.  So  that  would  be  no  reply.  I  claim  that  a  man  can  so 
use  his  gifts  as  to  preach  Gospel  doctrines.  Then  I  will  be  told  that  Professor 
Swing  is  a  poet  and  cannot  present  those  truths  with  the  same  strictness  and  preci- 
sion that  another  man  can  who  has  made  the  subject  his  special  business.  But  I 
claim  that  if  he  is  a  poet,  so  was  Toplady,  and  yet  he  wrote : 

"Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring; 
Simply  to  thy  cross  I  cling." 

If  Professor  Swing  ig  a  poet  his  eloquence  would  enable  him  to  preach  the 
Gospel  with  all  the  more  power,  and  if  he  has  the  power,  then  all  the  more  shame 
that  he  does  not  use  it  in  the  service  of  his  Master. 

Then,  I  will  be  told  that  Professor  Swing  is  not  capable  of  making  strict 
etatements,  and  that  it  is  an  idiosyncracy  which  makes  him  unable  to  express  his 
thoughts  with  clearness.  I  deny  it,  I  know  better  ;  I  know  that  when  he  chooses 
he  can  be  as  transparent  as  glass,  and  when  he  chooses  he  can  be  as  ambiguous  as 
a  Delphic  orator.  I  shall  be  told  again  that  a  man  cannot  be  expected  to  always 
preach  a  sermon  on  some  particular  doctrine.  I  have  not  affirmed  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  preach  doctrinal  sermons.  I  don't  care  what  the  subject  is,  so  long  as  the 
Evangelical  preaching  is  that  of  the  gospel,  and  in  this  sense  1  do  believe  every 
Christian  gospel  should  be  dyed  in  the  blood  of  Christ. 

Now,  I  have  affirmed  that  these  things  are  so,  and  I  oflTer  in  evidence  the  ser- 
mons printed  by  Professor  Swing's  authority.  I  defy  j^ou  to  find  these  doctrines  in 
his  sermons.  "They  tell  me  that  these  are  only  specimen  sermons,  and  certainly 
the  most  plausible  reply  the  defense  can  make  is  that  these  are  but  fragments  of 
Professor  Swing's  preaching  during  seven  years.  I  reply  that  if  a  man  publishes 
a  volume  of  sermons,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  publishes  the  volume  with  the 
idea  of  doing  good,  and  in  order  that  they  may  reach  men  who  cannot  be  reached 
by  preaching.  When  these  doctrines  are  wanting  in  the  volume — and  this  is  the 
only  volume  put  forward  over  his  name — I  think  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  he 
does  not  regard  these  doctrines  set  forth  in  the  specifications  as  paramount. 

But  that  is  not  all.  They  will  say  "You  have  not  proved  that  he  has  not 
preached  those  doctrines."  I  accept  the  challenge.  Then,  they  tell  me  it  is  prov- 
ing a  negative.  I  accept  the  challenge,  and  I  do  prove  it.  It  is  not  incumbent 
upon  me  in  order  to  establish  this  negative  proposition  that  I  shall  have  had  accesa 
to  every  sermon  that  Professor  Swing  has  preached,  that  I  shall  have  heard  every 
sermon,  or  bring  witnesses  who  have  heard  every  sermon  and  who  would  therefore 
give  testimony  as  to  its  character.  It  is  sufficient  for  me  if  I  raise  a  fair  presump- 
tion that  the  accused  does  not  preach  these  doctrines,  and  that  I  do  raise  this  fair 
presumption  I  ofler  all  Professor  Swing's  printed  sermons  in  evidence,  and  I  affirm 
that  in  all  these  sermons  those  doctrines  are  wanting.  It  is  a  principle  in  evidence 
that  where  a  negative  proposition  of  this  kind  lays  the  burden  of  proof  on  the 
prosecutor,  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  prosecutor  to  make  plenary  proof  of  the 
same.  [Professor  Patton  here  quoted  in  support  of  his  argument,  opinions  from 
Greenleaf,  and  a  decision  given  by  Judge  Caton  in  the  Supreme  Court.  This  de- 
cision was  given  in  an  action  for  damages  brought  by  an  individual  against  a  rail- 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       119 

■way  company  for  killing  a  mule.  At  the  mention  of  "  the  mule,"  the  court  burst 
into  a  loud  laugh.] 

Professor  iSwiiig  having  possession  of  the  sermons  he  has  delivered  since  the 
fire,  and  I  having  established  a  fair  presumption  that  he  does  not  preach  the  doc- 
trines I  have  indicated,  the  fact  may  be  considered  to  be  established,  unless  he 
proves  to  the  contrary.  Then,  the  question  is  whether  the  defense  lias  provod  that 
Professor  Swing  does  preach  the  evangelical  doctrines.  This  averment  must  bo 
ield  as  proved,  unless  they  have  proved  the  contrary.  Have  they  done  so?  Let 
us  see.  They  have  produced  testimony.  The  elders  of  the  Fourth  Church  were 
called  to  testify,  and  they  did  testify,  that  in  their  opinion  Professor  Swing  preached 
the  gospel ;  that  in  their  opinion  he  preached  the  doctrine  of  the  deity  of  Christ ; 
and  the  value  of  their  opinions  can  be  determined  when  I  tell  you  that  in  proof 
of  that  they  cited  one  of  the  passages  which  I  cited  as  an  instance  of  Professor 
Swing's  equivocation.  They  testified  that  Professor  Swing  preached  the  doctrine 
of  eternal  punishment,  and  as  indicating  the  value  of  their  testimony  let  me  re- 
mind you  that  they  cited  another  passage  which  I  read  as  a  specimen  of  Professor 
Swing's  equivocation.  They  testified  that  Professor  Swing  preached  all  the  cardi- 
nal doctrines  ;  and  when  I  asked  them  when  and  where,  and  what  he  said,  the 
only  party  who  could  give  any  testimony  was  Mr.  Waite,  who  gave  evidence  re- 
specting a  sermon  preached  on  Unitarianism  before  Professor  Swing  became  pastor 
of  the  Fourth  Church.  He  may  have  been  sound  enough  then.  The  only  other 
specific  testimony  was  that  of  Mr.  Lee.  And  the  fact  that  they  chose  the  printed 
sermons  already  oflered  in  evidence  to  disprove  the  allegations  would  imply  that 
they  offered  this  as  the  very  best  evidence  they  had. 

The  evidence  given  for  the  defense  by  these  witnesses  as  to  the  sermons  was 
inadmissible,  the  manuscript  sermons  being  in  existence.  [Here  he  quoted  a 
decision  given  by  the  General  Assembly  on  Lowroy's  appeal,  and  set  forth  on  660 
page,  New  Digest,  to  the  effect  that  the  best  proof  must  be  adduced,  I  call  for  the 
manuscripts  of  the  sermons  preached  since  the  fire.  They  are  in  existence  ;  they 
are  all  in  Professor  Swing's  house.  He  can  bring  them  into  court  to-morrow.  He 
could  have  brought  them  into  court  when  previously  called  upon.  If  it  is  true 
that  Professor  Swing  has  preached  the  doctrines  that  I  allege  he  has  not  preached  ; 
and  if  anxious,  as  I  know  he  is  anxious,  to  disprove  these  allegations,  to  set  my 
complaint  adrift  and  turn  it  out  of  court,  and  be  acquitted  at  the  hands  of  the 
Presbytery,  and  recognized  by  the  body  as  still  in  good  standing,  as  still  deserving 
of  the  confidence  of  this  court  and  of  the  Presbyterian  Church— it  stands  to  reason 
that  he  would  have  brought  these  sermons  and  flung  defiance  in  the  face  of  his 
prosecutor,  by  producing  the  written  testimony  of  the  falsehood  of  the  charges. 
The  fact  that  he  has  not  done  it,  in  spite  of  repeated  challenges,  is  demonstration 
that  he  cannot  do  it,  and  that  the  allegation  is  true. 

I  pass  now  to  the  sixth  specification.  In  a  sermon  called  "  Christianity  and 
Dogma,"  printed  in  "Truths  for  To-day,"  the  following  language  is  used  : 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  formally  stated  cannot  be  experienced.  Man 
has  not  the  power  to  taste  the  oneness  of  three,  nor  the  threeness  of  one,  and  see 
that  it  is  "good,"  If  you,  my  friend,  are  giving  your  daily  thought  to  the  facts 
of  Christianity,  and  are  standing  bewildered  to-day  amid  the  statements  of  science 
and  Genesis  about  earth,  or  its  swarms  of  life,  recall  the  truth  that  your  soul  cannot 
taste  any  theory  of  man's  origin — cannot  experience  the  origin  of  man,  whatever 
that  origin  may  have  been. 

This  statement  is  not  an  obiter  dictum  on  the  part  of  Professor  Swing.  It  is  a 
principle  which  runs  through  his  theology.  He  does  not  say  that  a  doctrine  is  true 
m  proportion  as  you  can  verify  it.  If  he  hud  said  that,  every  man  could  have 
seen  that  it  was  rationalism  ;  but  he  says  that  a  doctrine  is  valuable  in  proportion 
as  you  can  verify  it  by  experience.  You  may  fill  a  garret  with  theology,  and  it 
may  be  true,  but  what  use  is  it  to  me  when  y<>u  have  pronounced  upon  it  that  it  is 
worthless.  And  when  Profossor  Swing  undertakes  to  set  up  this  standard  as  a 
test  of  the  value  of  the  doctrines,  then  he  has  enunciated  a  principle  which  lands 
you  inevitably  into  skepticism.  He  says  you  cannot  verify  the  Trinity  in  your 
experience,  and  therefore  it  is  not  valuable.  This  principle  relates  to  every  solitary 
doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  which  is  mysterious.  The  moment  this  view  is  held 
respecting  the  Trinity,  a  door  is  opened  which  cannot  be  shut,  for  a  man  comes 
along  and  says  he  cannot  see  other  vital  truths  and  down  goes  your  Christianity. 
There  never  was  a  sentiment  uttered  more  str«ngly  in  support  of  rationalism  than 
this  one  by  Professor  Swing  :  and  if  there  was  only  this  one  in  his  book,  it  was 


120       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

enough  to  indicate  the  drift  of  his  mind  and  tell  you  he  is  not  a  safe  teacher  for  a 
Presbyterian  flock. 

This  court,  I  hope,  will  not  consider  it  an  impertinence  if,  for  the  purpose  of 
throwing  light  on  the  specification,  I  go  out  of  my  way  and  state  in  substance 
what  the  doctrine  of  development  is.  It  is  the  doctrine  in  philosophj'  whif.ih  more 
than  all  other  challenges  the  attention  of  the  Christian  students,  bids  defiance  to 
the  history  of  the  Christian  church  and  the  historic  faith  of  the  Christian  disciples. 
It  is  the  philosophy  which  in  the  present  day  is  assuming  a  position  of  paramount 
authority.  Applied  to  the  material  world,  the  doctrine  is,  that  all  the  forms  of 
material  existence  have  developed  by  a  process  of  evolution  from  an  original  ether, 
whatever  that  is.  Applied  to  life,  it  tells  us  that  the  highest  forms  of  existence 
have  come  through  successive  transmutations  from  lower  forms  of  being.  Applied 
to  social  culture,  it  tells  us  that  man  was  first  savage;  that  religion  was  an  after- 
thought ;  that  he  was  as  unable  at  one  time  to  worship  God  as  to  build  a  fire  ;  that 
(Christianity  is  as  much  the  natural  growth  of  the  law  of  circumstances  as  is  steam 
the  natural  result  of  a  progress  which  began  with  a  race  which  could  not  build  a 
lire ;  and  when  they  did  succeed  in  building  one,  it  was  by  rubbing  two  sticks 
together.  It  is  a  philosophy  that  tolls  that  man  was  at  one  time  without  any 
language,  and  that,  gabbler  as  he  is  to-day,  at  one  time  he  could  not  talk.  It  tells 
us  that  man  first  worshipped  his  grandfather,  and  that  his  religion  became  Poly- 
theism, Pantheism,  Monotheism,  which  culminated  in  Judaism  ;  and  it  is  Judaism 
transformed  by  precisely  natural  causes  which  give  us  the  Christianity  of  to-day. 
That  is  positive  philosophy. 

Now,  let  me  read  some  passages  from  Professor  Swing,  and  from  some  of  the 
holders  of  these  philosophic  views,  and  tell  me  if  any  one  could  not  affirm  that  he 
had  been  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Buckle,  and  Tyler,  and  Lubbock,  and  other  evolu- 
tionist Gamaliels  ;  that  he  entertained  the  view  that  man  in  his  first  stage  had  no 
language,  and  that  his  position  to-day  is  the  result  of  natural  causes,  and  that  the 
Christianity  of  to-day  is  just  the  out)growth  of  the  centuries,  the  blossoming  of  the 
flowers  of  the  human  heart.  Here  is  a  passage  from  the  last  work,  "Primitive 
Culture,"  written  by  Tylor,  who  is  a  representative  of  culture,  looked  at  from  the 
stand-point  of  evolution,  and  the  passage  might  have  been  written  by  Professor 
Swing.     Tylor  says : 

"  Looking  at  each  doctrine  by  itself  and  for  itself  as  in  the  abstract  time  or  in 
time,  theologians  close  their  eyes  to  the  instances  which  history  is  ever  holding  up 
before  them,  that  one  phase  of  a  religious  belief  is  the  outcome  of  another  ;  that  in 
all  times  religion  has  included  within  its  limits  a  system  of  philosophy,  express- 
ing more  or  less  its  transcendental  conceptions  in  doctrines  which  form  in  any  age 
their  fittest  representations,  but  which  doctrines  are  liable  to  modification  in  the 
general  course  of  intellectual  change,  whether  the  general  formulas  still  hold  their 
authority  with  altered  meaning,  or  are  thereby  reformed  or  replaced." 

I  will  now  read  a  passage  from  Sir  John  Lubbock,  an  eminent  English  writer, 
belonging  to  the  same  school.     He  writes  in  his  work  : 

"The  Origin  of  Civilization  and  the  Primitive  Condition  of  Man  ;"  "The 
Duke  appears  to  consider  that  the  first  men,  though  deficient  in  knowledge  of  the 
mechanical  arts,  were  morally  intellectually  superior,  or  at  least  equal,  to  those  of 
the  present  day,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  supporting  such  a  man  he  should  regard 
himself  as  a  champion  of  orthodox.  Adam  is  represented  to  us  in  person  not  only 
as  naked,  and  subsequently  clothed  with  leaves,  but  was  unable  to  resist  the  most 
trival  temptation,  and  as  entertaining  very  gross  and  anthropomorphic  conceptions 
of  the  Deity.  In  fact,  in  all  th^^ee  characteristics — in  his  mode  of  life,  in  his  moral 
condition,  and  his  intellectual  conceptions — Adam  was  a  typical  savage." 

In  a  sermon  Professor  Swing  says;  "Low  idolatry  of  primitive  man."  I  do 
not  know  what  is  meant  by  this  term  "primitive  man,"  but  in  the  Interior  I 
called  attention  to  the  employment  of  this  term,  and  asked  Professor  Swing  why 
he  insisted  on  using  the  language  of  evolutionists.  He  turned  around  and  asked 
me  whether  I  would  prefer  him  to  say  Adam  instead  of  primitive  man.  He  fur- 
nishes me  with  the  conclusion  to  the  syllogism  that  primitive  man  was  an  idolater, 
and  that  primitive  man  was  Adam.     In  another  paragraph  Professor  Swing  says  : 

"  The  Mosaic  Economy  was  nothing  else  but  a  progress  ;  earth  had  come  to 
Polytheism,  to  Pantheism,  to  Feticism.  It  was  the  Hebrew  philosophy  and  its 
immediate  result,  Christianity,  which  swept  away  the  iron  Jupiter." 

Upon  an  unprejudiced  mind  the  impression  would  be  made  that  Professor 
Swing  teaches  that  Christianity  developed  by  the  law  of  nature  out  of  Judaism, 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       121 

as  Judaism  had  already  come  out  of  Polytheism  and  Feticism !  Professor  Swing  may 
not  mean  that,  but  he  had  two  thousand  people  before  him,  more  or  less,  when  he 
preached  that  sermon,  many  of  them  men  of  culture,  who  would  naturally  put 
what  he  said  alongside  of  what  was  said  by  Lubbock,  and  if  they  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  Professor  Swing  and  Sir  John  Lubbock  were  first  cousins,  theo- 
logically speaking,  they  would  not  be  doing  Professor  Swing  an  injustice.  Again 
Professor  Swing  says : 

"  This  multitude  measures  a  great  revelation  of  God  above  that  day  when 
earth  possessed  but  one  man  or  family,  and  that  one  without  language  and  without 
learning  and  without  virtue  " 

Compare  this  statement  with  that  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis, 
and  see  if  Moses  and  Swing  entertain  the  same  opinions,  and  whether  Moses  says 
that  when  our  first  parents,  Adam  and  Eve,  were  in  the  garden,  they  had  no 
knowledge,  and  could  not  converse  with  each  other.  I  must  ask  Professor  Swing 
to  tell  us  what  he  means.  I  have  heard  that  there  is  one  brother  in  this  house 
who  knows  what  all  these  passages  mean,  and  I  am  going  to  engage  him  for  one 
week  as  interpreter  if  I  can  not  get  light  anywhere  else.  What,  however,  does 
•this  language  mean  ? 

"The  Bible  has  not  made  religion,  but  religion  and  righteousness  have  made 
the  Bible.  Christianity  is  not  forced  upon  us;  our  own  nature  has  forced  it  up 
out  of  the  spirit's  rich  depths. " 

You  can  not  reconcile  that  with  Christianity.  It  may  be  a  lapsus  linguos  or 
a  lapsus  pennoE,  but  as  it  stands,  it  teaches  that  Christianity  is  a  development  of 
circumstance,  the  outgrowth  of  history.  Now,  the  Bible  says  "God  made  man  in 
His  own  image."  If  God  made  man  in  His  own  image,  then  Adam  was  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  and  mirrored  the  perfection  of  God.  Then  for  any  one  to 
say,  "In  the  first  human  being  God  could  no  more  display  His  perfection  than  a 
musician  like  Mozart  could  unfold  his  genius  to  an  infant,  or  to  a  South  Sea 
Islander,"  was  to  tell  Moses  that  he  did  not  tell  the  truth,  for  Moses  and  the 
Apostles  say  that  God  did  make  man  in  His  own  image.  I  believe  that  Adam 
was  a  great  deal  more  like  God  than  I  am  going  to  be  for  many  a  day  to  come. 

Professor  Swing — May  I  ask  you  a  question  ? 

Professor  Patton — Certainly. 

Professor  Swing — Do  you  think  Adam  had  any  missionary  societies — any 
asylums  of  any  kind  to  glorify  God  with? 

Professor  Patton — There  was  not  anybody  to  go  to ;  there  were  no  heathen. 
[Loud  Laughter.] 

Professor  Patton — I  come  now  to  the  eighth  specification.  I  will  read  portions 
of  a  sermon  called  "The  Influence  of  Democracy  on  Christian  doctrine."  In  this 
I  find  passages,  which,  if  they  have  any  meaning,  teach  that  there  are  no  standards 
by  which  we  can  measure  eternal  verities,  by  which  we  can  measure  moral  ideas, 
are  liable  to  change,  and  are  subject  to  the  laws  of  all  human  things.  If  there 
is  any  one  hope  I  cherish,  it  is  that  Professor  Swing  is  better  than  his  preaching. 
I  have  said  this  in  print,  that  I  honestly  hope  that  his  creed  is  better  than  the 
expression  of  it ;  but  we  have  to  deal  only  with  the  expression  of  it,  because  it  is 
that  by  which  he  exercises  influence.  Suppose  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  should  stand  in  his  pulpit,  and  in  the  presence  of  his  people,  who  are 
accustomed  to  regard  the  Bible  as  a  Divine  revelation,  an  infallible  rule  of  faith 
and  practice,  and  who  are  in  the  habit  of  taking  the  Confession  of  Faith  as  embody- 
ing the  doctrines  taught  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  believe  that  the  doctrines  for- 
mulated there  are  true — what  would  be  the  impression  produced  by  such  sentences 
as  these  ? 

"When  we  come  to  moral  ideas,  we  are  compelled  to  do  without  any  stan- 
dards." "You  may,  my  friends,  at  j'our  leisure,  seek  and  find  further  instances  of 
this  modification  of  Christian  belief  by  the  new  surroundings  of  government. 
Christian  customs  will  also  be  modified  along  with  the  creed." 

I  tell  you  there  is  a  standard.  I  can  set  my  moral  watch  by  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness and  know  that  it  is  right.     Again,  Professor  Swing  says: 

"In  this  casting  ofi"  of  old  garments,  it  no  more  cheerfully  throws  away  the 
inconceivable  of  Christianity  than  the  inconceivable  of  Kant  and  Spinoza."  "In 
this  abandonment  there  is  no  charge  of  falsehood  cast  upon  the  old  mysteries ;  they 
may  or  may  not  be  true ;  there  is  only  a  passing  them  by  as  not  being  in  the  line 
of  the  current  wish  or  taste  ;  raiment  for  a  past  age,  perhaps  for  a  future,  but 
not  acceptable  for  the  present." 


122       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

The  inference  is  that  he  thinks  just  as  much  about  predestination  as  I  do  about 
Spinoza — and  you  cannot  get  any  better  idea  of  it.  This  Chicago,  this  new  city, 
with  its  enterprise  and  its  railroads,  cannot  be  supposed  to  adhere  to  old  doctrines. 
"Christian  customs  will  also  be  modified  along  with  the  creed,"  says  Professor 
Swing.  He  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  creed  is  going  to  be  modified,  and  his 
only  question  is  as  to  whether  the  customs  are  going  to  be  modified  too  I  This 
Presbytery  will  have  its  own  judgment  to  form  in  reference  to  this  case.  It  will 
b«  the  province  of  Presbytery  to  say  whether  Professor  Swing  has  or  has  not  held 
to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  whether,  having  departed  from  the  standards  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  he  still  shall  have  a  right  to  minister  at  her  altar,  and 
be  recognized  as  in  good  standing.  I  tell  you,  the  time  is  coming  when  you  will 
say,  if  you  suifer  this,  that  you  were  wrong.  The  time  is  coming  when  ministers 
of  this  city  will  find  their  own  influence  undermined  by  the  influence  of  such 
preaching  as  this.  You  remember  the  story  in  classic  times  of  Penelope — we  have 
got  Penelope  somewhere  else.  [Laughter.]  How,  when  waiting  for  the  long- 
absent  Ulysses,  and  pressed  by  suitors,  she  postponed  the  act  of  accepting  a  favored 
one  until  she  had  finished  a  certain  web  of  tapestry,  and  how  she  wove  in  the 
day-time,  and  unraveled  in  the  night  what  she  had  done  in  the  day.  You  minis- 
ters of  Chicago  are  the  Penelope  of  the  daytime,  and  Professor  Swing  of  your  city 
is  the  Penelope  of  the  night.  You  are  preaching  the  doctrines  which  he  is  discard- 
ing, believing,  yourselves,  in  these  time-honored  standards,  maintaining  them  in 
the  face  of  a  Godless  and  scoffing  world  ;  and  he  stands  in  your  presence  to  tell 
you  he  has  drifted  away  from  them,  while  by  the  adroitness  and  vagueness  of  his 
language  and  subtle  arrangement  of  his  thoughts,  leads  his  people  to  believe  ha 
still  is  in  sympathy  with  the  great  doctrines  of  our  faith.  Mark  you,  the  time  is 
coming  when  you  will  say  that  the  prosecutor  in  this  case  was  right  in  what  he 
did,  and  I  will  wait  for  a  century,  if  necessary,  for  my  vindication  I    [Sensation.] 

I  will  pass  to  the  ninth  specification.  He  has  used  his  pulpit  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  countenance  to  the  doctrine  of  Sabellianism.  He  gives  his  public 
approval  to  a  model  Trinity,  which  is  not  the  Trinity  of  the  Bible,  nor  of  the 
Gospel.  We  believe  in  one  God  ;  that  the  Father  is  God;  that  the  Son  is  God, 
and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  God.  These  are  the  factors  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  The  question  is  how  to  combine.  There  are  two  methods — the  Sabellian 
and  the  Orthodox,  or  Athanasian.  He  preaches  the  Sabellian  theory  of  the  Trinity, 
which  is  that  there  is  one  God,  who  is  viewed  in  three  lights,  and  appears  as 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  The  true  doctrine  teaches  that  there  are  three 
persons  in  one  God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and  glory.  He  has 
contravened  this  doctrine  which  is  not  a  doctrine  of  to-day.  Its  history  goes  back 
to  the  300  bishops  who  sat  in  the  council  at  Nice,  with  the  Gospels  before  them, 
and  formulated  it.  This  Presbytery  should  pronounce  at  once  against  a  man  who 
stands  up  in  a  Presbyterian  pulpit  and  preaches  Sabellianism. 

Let  us  pass  to  the 

TENTH  SPECIFICATION. 

The  first  point  I  shall  quote  on  this  charge  is  the  sermon  entitled  "A  Positive 
Eeligion,"— Page  189  of  "  Truths  for  To-day." 

As  to  this  destructive  inquiry  about  God,  reducing  Him  to  an  oxygen-,  or  an 
unconscious,  unknown  agency,  we  may  well  recall  the  fact  that  there  is  no  moral 
proposition  which  may  not,  by  the  same  devotion  to  skepticism  be  stricken  out 
from  the  catalogue  of  beliefs.  Logic,  if  well  followed,  may  lead  us  to  doubt 
whether  there  is  such  a  thing  as  honor,  such  a  thing  as  benevolence,  such  a  thing 
as  mind,  such  a  thing  as  pure  affection.  "When  it  comes  to  a  search  for  perfect 
assurance,  then  we  soon  ruin  the  moral  world,  for  there  is  no  perfect  assurance  in 
it,  or  any  part  of  it,  and  hence  the  logic  which  seeks  that  assurance  can  only 
destroy.  It  must  come  back  each  evening,  saying,  '  There  is  no  virtue,  no  sin,  no 
mind,  no  God.'  When  logic  informs  you  and  me  that  God  is  law,  or  a  wide-pread 
blind  agency,  let  us  not  be  deceived,  for  all  it  has  done  is  to  take  away  our  God. 
It  has  not  given  us  a  positive  origin  of  the  universe,  for  if  positiveness  is  unattain- 
able, reason  will  in  a  few  years  confess  itself  to  be  as  uncertain  about  its  data  as  it 
is  to-day  about  the  data  of  the  Christian.  Perfect  assurance  is  just  as  impossible 
to  a  free  religionist  or  atheist  as  it  is  to  the  Christian.  Kemembcring  therefore, 
that  there  is  no  moral  idea  of  beauty,  or  love,  or  soul,  that  may  not  be  denied,  and 
remembering,  too,  that  the  assurance  that  there  is  a  God  is  always  logically  equal 
to  the  opposite  belief,  why  should  we  not  abandon  a  criticism  that  only  destroys. 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       123 

and  clasp  to  our  souls  the  grand  things  we  possess,  and,  Christlike,  live  not  to 
destroy  but  to  fulfill. 

I  am  not  charging  him  with  logical  attacks  upon  the  being  of  God.  But  I 
take  his  sentence.5  as  I  find  them  ;  and  I  find  the  arguments  for  and  against  the 
existence  of  God  equally  balanced.  It  is  our  business  to  take  the  ground  that 
there  is  an  universal  belief  in  God,  and  that  this  belief  is  corroborated  by  an  array 
of  arguments  which  make  it  absurd  for  him  to  doubt. 

Turn  to  page  138.  This  is  a  sentence  I  really  do  not  understand.  I  would 
not  have  been  surprised  to  hear  it  from  3Iatthew  Arnold  : 

"  We  know  not  what  nor  where  is  our  God,  or  heaven." 

I  affirm  we  do  know  where  and  what  He  is;  for  He  "is  a  spirit  infinite, 
eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  His  wisdom,  power,  glory  and  goodness;"  and  I  am 
surprised  that  a  preacher  in  this  nineteenth  century  should  lead  his  congregation 
to  worship  at  an  altar  erected  to  an  "unknown  god." 

I  will  read  to  you  now  what  our  own  symbols  say  upon  the  sacraments. 
Section  1  of  chapter  27,  says  : 

"  Sacraments  are  holy  signs  and  seals  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  immediately 
instituted  by  God,  to  represent  Christ  and  His  benefits,  and  to  confirm  our  interest 
in  Him  ;  as  also  to  put  a  visible  diflference  between  those  that  belong  unto  the 
church  and  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  solemnly  to  engage  them  to  the  service  of 
God  in  Christ,  according  to  His  Word. 

"  There  is  in  every  sacrament  a  spiritual  relation  or  sacramental  union  between 
the  sign  and  the  thing  signified  ;  whence  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  names  and  effects 
of  this  one  are  attributed  to  the  other." 

I  would  ask  you  to  read  with  me  the  specifications,  and  see  whether  Professor 
Swing  does  believe  in  the  rite  of  baptism.  In  the  sermon  entitled  "  A  Keligion 
of  Words"  he  has  said  : 

Then  came  the  days  that  brought  God  an  off'ering  of  words.  Imagining  Him 
to  be  a  God  of  articles  and  forms,  they  repeated  thousand  of  words,  and  baptized 
their  guilty  foreheads  in  much  or  little  water  as  an  act  of  salvation  ! 

And  now  the  world  awaits  the  last  transfiguration  of  human  worship  into  a 
spiritual  condition,  into  a  soul  lifted  above  sin,  and  exulting  in  a  nearness  to  the 
image  of  God.  The  nations  await  with  tears  of  past  sorrow  a  religion  that  shall 
indeed  baptize  men  and  children,  either  or  both,  but  counting  this  as  only  a 
beautiful  form  shall  take  the  souls  of  men  into  the  atmosphere  of  Jesus,  and  into 
the  all-pervading  presence  of  God,  and  detain  them  there  until  sin  shall  have 
become  a  hated  monster,  and  perfection  of  spirit  the  heaven  of  this  life  and  that  to 
come.     Terms  must  give  place  to  righteousness  and  communion  with  God. 

Professor  Swing — "  I  indorse  every  word  of  that." 

I  take  it  that  if  the  inquiry  was  started,  you  would  find  a  great  many  Presby- 
terians who  neglect  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  and  if  every  Presbyterian  minister 
should  go  on  and  preach  that  baptism  is  only  a  "  beautiful  form,"  the  Baptist 
denomination  would  soon  swallow  us  up,  and  there  would  be  no  more  occasion  to 
talk  about  close  communion.     [Applause.] 

I  will  read  the  twelfth  specification  [which  he  did.] 

I  understand  why  he  expresses  no  doubt  on  the  question  of  Penelope  and 
Socrates.  His  theory  is  that  we  go  to  heaven  on  the  strength  of  our  good  works. 
I  don't  think  we  are  called  upon  to  dogmatize  on  the  question  of  Penelope.  If  we 
believe  in  the  salvation  of  the  heathen  without  approach  to  Christ,  you  cut  the 
nerve  of  missionary  effort  and  the  backbone  of  Christianity. 

We  will  past  to  the  next  specification.  When  the  defense  called  Dr.  Swazey, 
and  I  called  Mr.  Goudy,  there  was  a  doubt  raised  as  to  whether  they  heard  the 
name  sermon.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  sermon  preached  at  Dr.  Swazey's  instal- 
lation. I  will  read  it,  and  let  you  judge  whether  Mr.  Goudy's  recollection  of  it 
was  correct. 

(The  sermon  was  read  at  length,  as  published  in  the  morning  papers  of 
May  19,  1873.) 

Now  I  will  read  the  Confession  of  Faith,  chapter  25,  section  8. 

Professor  Swing's  sermon,  if  it  means  anything,  means  that  the  office  of 
Christian  ministers  has  no  groundwork  in  theBible — that  it  is  an  outgrowth  of 
the  exigencies  of  civilization  and  of  the  wants  of  society. 

Dr.  Swazey  said  this  sermon  impressed  him  very  deeply  ;  it  seemed  to  him  a 
getting  at  the  rationale  of  the  ministry, — "a  digging  under,"  as  he  said.    I  should 


V2i       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

aay  it  was  "a  digging  under" — an  undermining  of  the  whole  structure  of  the 
Christian  Church.     [Applause  to  the  north.] 

Let  us  go  back  to  page  62  of  "David  Swing's  Sermons."  "A  religion  of 
words." 

"  To  offer  things  to  God  was  earth's  first  form  of  being  religious.  The  old 
temples  were  full  of  bows,  arrows,  shields,  helmets,  and  jewels  put  away  from 
human  use  by  a  solemn  gift-making  to  the  Gods.  ***** 
Good  came  from  this  custom,  for  that  spiritual  worship  is  the  highest  form  of 
religion  does  not  make  useless  or  harmless  a  form  full  of  material  things  and  ideas. 
The  gift-making  worship  takes  only  a  second  position,  inferior,  but  not  useless 
nor  absurd.  In  Solomon's  day  not  to  offer  a  lamb  to  Jehovah  was  to  be  an  infidel, 
for  the  religious  thought  and  feeling  of  the  times  fiowing  in  that  channel,  the  heart 
that  made  no  offering  was  an  infidel  heart." 

I  have  no  objection  to  his  speaking  of  heathen  sacrifices  as  gift-worship  ;  but 
when  he  makes  the  statements  respecting  the  sacrifices  of  the  Jews,  I  do  most 
emphatically  object.  It  is  a  denial  of  the  Scripture  statements.  The  sixteenth 
cliapttr  of  Leviticus  informs  us  it  was  a  divinely  appointed  ordinance.  The  great 
difficulty  with  Professor  Swing's  theology  is  that  it  robs  the  Bible  of  the  element 
of  guilt,  and  takes  out  the  sentence  of  condemnation,  the  justification  and  vicarious 
atonement  of  Christ. 

Besides  this  objection  to  the  idea  here  put  forth  there  are  two  others — it  is 
an  implicit  denial  of  the  element  of  guilt  in  the  doctrine  of  sin  ;  but  it  is  bound  to 
upset  every  conception  which  you  will  have  already  accepted  as  established,  for  as 
you  judge  the  sacrifices  in  the  book  of  Leviticus,  will  you  judge  the  sacrifice  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  next  specification  will  be  the  sixteenth.  I  will  pass  it  for  the  present, 
reminding  the  court  of  the  statements  made  yesterday  in  reference  to  Mr.  Mill  and 
Mr.  Cousin.     We  will  pass  to  the  seventeenth. 

Were  Professor  Swing  to  studiously  refrain  from  the  use  of  theological  terms, 
one  great  objection  and  difficulty  would  be  out  of  the  way.  When  he  uses  them 
you  are  not  to  conclude  that  they  mean  in  his  dictionary  what  they  mean  in  yours. 
The  necessities  of  this  controversy  oblige  me  to  use  language  by  way  of  antithesis, 
that  may  sound  harsh  to  Unitarian  ears.  I  beg  they  will  not  think  I  mean  any 
discourtesy  to  them.  Other  denominations  use  these  words  :  Kegeneration,  saviour, 
salvation,  justification,  divine ;  therefore,  it  becomes  our  dutj''  to  scrutinize  hia 
meaning  when  he  uses  these  words.  When  we  say  Christ  is  divine,  we  mean  that 
He  is  God. 

A  spiritual  religion  announced  and  a  spiritual  religion  accepted  are  different 
matters.  A  divine  being  and  a  few  followers  may  announce  one,  but  the  world  is 
always  far  below  the  few  leading  divine  souls,  and  hence,  after  salvational  words 
are  announced,  it  will  continue  to  be  much  like  this  hereafter. 

Let  us  now  approach  a  more  warmly  disputed  proposition,  namely  :  That  the 
•divineness  of  Christ  is  something  essential  to  Christian  system. 

1  do  not  know  what  he  means  by  that.  When  he  speaks  of  the  divineness  of 
our  Lord,  and  in  another  place  of  the  divineness  of  Christians,  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  saving  I  do  not  know  whether  he  believes  that  Christ  is  God. 

"*  *  *  *  *  *  *  »  »  * 

I  shall  take  up  several  of  the  specifications  and  group  them  together  ;  I  will 
not  dwell  upon  them  specifically,  but  I  shall  allude  to  them  as  I  go  on.  I  would 
ask  those  who  have  Professor  Swing's  sermons  with  them,  to  read  those  entitled 
"  Faith"  and  "Good  Works."     (The  specifications  were  here  read.) 

Our  discussion  is  not  to-day  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  the  doctrine 
in  issue  is  the  doctrine  which  Luther  defended  against  the  Koman  Catholic  Church. 
That  is  what  made  Reformation.  That  is  what  makes  Presbj'terianism.  And  when 
you  depart  from  it,  you  leave  behind  you  the  cardinal  principles  of  Christianity. 
I  claim  that  Professor  Swing  does  not  preach  the  doctrine  of  justification.  What 
is  justification?  The  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  that  justification  means 
making  holy ;  that  a  justified  person  was  a  holy  person,  and  the  issue  in  the  main, 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  was  to  settle  that  question,  and  to  deny  that 
justification  meant  a  making  holy,  and  to  affirm  that  it  was  a  judicial  act  of  God, 
whereby  He  freely  pardons  all  our  sins  and  accepts  us  as  righteous,  as  opposed  to 
the  mysticism  of  Romanism.  Now,  when  we  come  to  this,  and  affirm  that  justifi- 
cation is  a  judicial  act  on  the  part  of  God.  We  find  a  difference  again.  They  find, 
for  instance,  our  Arminian  brethren  going  with  us  thus  far,  but  at  this  point  our 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       125 

paths  diverge.  They  say  that  justification  means  pardon.  We  say  it  means  pardon, 

and  something  else  besides. 

Our  standard  defines  justification  as  an  act  of  God's  free  grace  wherein  He 
pardons  our  sins,  and  counts  us  as  if  we  were  righteous.  Did  Professor  Swing 
believe  that?  No  ;  because,  if  he  did,  he  could  not  write  this  sentence:  work  that 
is,  results — a  new  life — are  the  destiny  of  faith,  the  reason  of  its  wonderful  play  of 
light  on  the  religious  horizon.  Faith  as  a  believe  and  a  friendship,  is  good,  so  far 
as  it  bears  the  soul  to  "this  normal  perfection." 

[Here  he  read  the  definition  of  "justification,"  as  set  forth  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith.] 

These  words  could  not  be  understood  to  mean  justification  by  faith  as  believed 
by  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  could  only  be  reconciled  as  believing  that  justifi- 
cation means  personal  character,  and  taking  the  ground  of  the  Komanists,  and 
mystics,  and  Dr.  Bushncll,  and  until  he  had  a  direct  contradiction  from  Dr.  Swing, 
1  will  believe  that  this  is  what  he  means.  Professor  Swing  holds  the  subjective 
view  of  justification  by  faith  as  held  by  Unitarians,  as  against  the  objective  view 
held  by  the  Presbyterian  Church.  When  Professor  Swing  represents  the  theology 
of  Presbyterianism  as  a  naked  assent  to  an  intellectual  proposition  he  gives  us  an 
illustration  of  history  repeating  itself,  for  if  I  read  history  aright  this  was  one  of 
the  points  in  the  controversy  in  Konian  Catholic  times  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
that  Protestants  were  claimed  by  Roman  Catholics  as  believing  in  salvation  by 
naked  assent,  and  hence  arose  a  distinction  in  Protestant  Latin  theology  between 
fides  &nd Jiducia.  Faith,  as  taught  in  the  standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  is 
not  a  naked  assent  to  a  proposition,  but  it  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Adjourned. 

THURSDAY'S  SESSION. 

Professor  Patton  proceeded  with  his  argument. 

Brethren  :  I  call  your  attention  this  morning  to  the  thirteenth  specification, 
which  reads  as  follows  :  "  In  a  sermon  printed  on  or  about  15th  September,  1872, 
from  II  Peter,  iii.  9,  he  made  use  of  loose  and  unguarded  language  respecting  the 
providence  of  God." 

In  support  of  this  allegation,  I  will  read  an  abstract  of  a  sermon  preached  by 
Professor  Swing  on  September  22,  1872,  as  reported  in  the  Times.  [The  Professor 
here  read  the  report  at  length,  and  afterward  the  Confession  of  Faith  on  the  prov- 
idence of  God.]  The  question  I  address  to  the  court  is  this:  Understanding  this 
passage  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  as  containing  the  belief  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  I  ask  whether  Professor  Swing  has  or  has  not  used  loose  and  unguarded 
language  in  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  the  providence  of  God  when  he  preached 
the  sermon  which  I  have  read. 

In  many  of  the  specifications  on  which  I  have  commented,  the  charge  is  not 
that  Professor  Swing  believes  error,  but  that  he  teaches  error.  I  have  taken  these 
passages,  and  so  far  as  it  has  been  practicable  have  presented  the  context.  All  the 
sermons  from  which  quotations  have  been  made  are  in  evidence,  and  are  accessible 
to  the  members  of  the  court.  They  can  see  whether  I  have  done  injustice  to  the 
quotations  I  have  made,  and  it  will  be  the  privilege  of  the  defense,  if  such  injustice 
has  been  done,  to  make  it  apparent.  It  was  simply  impossible  that  I  should  read 
all  the  sermons  through  in  order  that  they  might  justify  my  use  of  one  or  two 
sentences  by  way  of  comment.  Now,  it  might  be  argued,  and,  perhaps,  the  opinion 
has  been  expressed  before  this,  that  the  utterance  of  error,  or  the  sentences  alleged 
to  be  error,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  direct  afl5rmation  of  his  disbelief  of  cer- 
tain doctrines.  The  point  we  are  arguing  in  this  case  is  not  that  Professor  Swing 
does  not  believe  these  doctrines.  We  shall  have  something  to  say  on  that  subject 
under  the  second  charge;  but  if  he  does  believe  them,  and  yet  teaches  error,  so 
much  the  worse.  If  you  can  prove  that  a  man  is  incompetent,  that  he  is  ignorant 
of  the  system  of  drugs,  that  would  be  a  reason  for  his  not  administering  drugs  ; 
but  be  he  ever  so  well  educated,  and  ever  so  familiar  with  the  pharmacopoeia,  if 
you  can  prove  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  he  administers  poisons,  then  I  am  not  going 
to  that  shop.  [Laughter  on  the  Swing  side  of  the  house.]  Now,  the  question 
with  us  is,  not  what  Professor  Swing  believes,  but  what  "he  says,  for  it  is  as  a 
teacher  we  are  making  charges  now  against  him.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  the 
language  used  by  Professor  Swing  should  be  proved  to  be  contrary  to  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  or  to  be  incompatible  with  a  construction  favorable  to  sound 
doctrine,  for  this  Presbytery  to  make  it  a  subject  of  judicial  action ;  because, 


126       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

granting  that  in  certain  expressions  used  it  is  possible  that  a  favorable  construction 
can  be  put  upon  it,  if  the  natural  meiining  of  the  language  and  the  natural  con- 
struction which  the  human  mind  would  put  upon  it  is  at  once  unfavorable  to  sound 
doctrine  and  vital  piety,  then  it  is  the  duty  of  the  court  to  tell  Professor  Swing  so, 
to  express  its  disapproval,  and  do  so  in  terms  measured  by  the  oflFense. 

Now  that  I  am  correct  in  this  opinion,  and  that  I  have  the  precedents  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  on  my  side,  let  me  quote  from  the  digest.  This  time  I  will 
quote  from  the  New  School  Digest.  [Laughter.]  [The  prosecutor  here  quoted 
the  decision  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1763,  in  the  case  of  Harper,  who  was 
charged,  among  other  things,  with  unintelligible  and  dangerous  modes  of  expres- 
sion, which  he  argued  was  a  parallel  case  with  the  Swing  case.  Next  he  cited  the 
Balch  case,  in  1798,  in  which  the  respondent  was  charged  with  promulgating  false 
doctrine,  and  met  with  the  disapprobation  of  the  General  Assembly.  Then  the 
prosecutor  cited  the  case  of  the  Kev.  W.  C.  Davis,  in  1810 — he  having  published 
an  objectionable  book — to  show  that  "Presbyterians  went  so  far  as  to  tell  their 
ministers  that  they  must  not  be  unhappy  in  their  expressions."] 

Again,  there  is  the  case  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Craighead.  "What  is  the  point  in  thi« 
ease?  It  is  that  althougti  Mr.  Craighead  was  charged  with  heresy,  and  although 
he  was  acquitted  of  that  charge  on  the  ground  that  the  language  used  was  capable 
of  favorable  construction,  and  on  the  further  ground  of  being  capable  of  that 
favorable  construction,  he  solemnly  disavowed  the  charge  made  against  him. 
Nevertheless,  the  General  Assembly  pronounced  his  statements  as  dangerous,  and 
affirmed  that  they  ought  to  be  condemned.  Now,  if  we  are  to  allow  ecclesiastical 
precedents  to  have  any  weight  with  us,  then,  even  though  it  were  possible  that  the 
language  of  Professor  Swing  was  capable  of  favorable  construction,  and  he  made 
the  most  explicit  disavowal  of  the  charge  of  heresy,  yet  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the 
Presbytery  to  express  its  disapproval  of  the  use  of  language  which  has  caused 
widespread  distrust  of  his  theological  position. 

The  opinion  which  I  have  formed  respecting  Professor  Swing's  theology  is  the 
result  of  a  very  careful  study  of  his  discourses,  from  the  fact  that  I  have  made  his 
sermons  a  matter  of  careful  study,  and  from  the  further  fact  that  the  doctrinal 
issues  involved  are  of  such  importance  that  I  feel  justified  in  speaking  in  such  a 
presence  as  this,  and,  I  fear,  at  a  wearisome  length,  on  topics  of  theology,  which 
are  familiar  to  us  all. 

I  left  off  yesterday  with  speaking  respecting  Professor  Swing's  views  upon  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  His  position  on  his  doctrine  is  not  a  matter  of 
doubt.  If  the  court  will  read  his  sermons  on  "God  Works"  and  on  "Faith"  the 
members  of  Presbytery  will  be  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the  views  of  Pro- 
fessor Swing  on  this  cardinal  doctrine  of  protestantism  are  not  the  views  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  are  not  the  views  which  could  be  accepted  by  any  branch  of 
the  evangelical  churches.  I  mean  by  evangelical  churches,  such  as  the  Methodist, 
Presbyterian,  Baptist,  and  Congregationalist  and  Episcopal.  I  object  to  the 
views  of  Professor  Swing.  The  objections  are  grave.  The  view  of  Professor  Swing 
on  the  subject  of  salvation  is,  that  he  only  can  look  forward  with  joy  who  can 
calmly  look  back,  that  heaven  is  a  height  to  which  men  rise  on  the  deeds  of  this 
life ;  and  if  I  were  called  to  preach  the  gospel  in  such  a  form  as  that,  it  would  be 
impossible  for  me  to  go  to  a  dying  man  and  tell  him  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  he  would  be  saved.  It  would  be  impossible  for  Mr.  LcLeod  to  go  to 
the  jail  as  he  has  had  to  go,  and  tell  an  inmate  who  is  paying  the  penalty  of  his 
crime  that  he  would  yet  be  received  by  Christ  if  he  believed,  as  Christ  said  to  one 
who  was  His  companion  in  suffering,  "This  day  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise. " 
I  object  to  the  views  of  Professor  Swing,  because  they  do  an  injustice  to  the  right- 
eousness of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  gospel  which  we  teach  is  the  righteousness 
of  Christ ;  of  salvation  through  His  blood.  It  is  this  gospel  which  has  lent  inspira- 
tion to  every  movement  whereby  the  cause  of  Christ  has  been  furthered.  It  is  the 
gospel  of  Charles  Hodge,  of  Albert  Barnes,  of  Charles  Spurgeon,  of  DeWitt 
Talmage ;  it  is  the  gospel  of  the  missionary,  of  the  evangelist,  of  Moody  and 
Sankey,  of  the  Sunday-school — a  gospel  which  is  sung  by  every  child  who  sings : 

"Tell  me  the  old,  old  story 
Of  Jesus  and  His  love." 

I  will  now  read  a  passage  from  a  letter  recently  received  in  which  reference 
is  made  to  the  revival  work  which  is  going  on  at  Edinburgh.  The  letter  has  just 
been  handed  to  me.     The  passage  is  as  follows  : 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       127 

As  we  know,  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  are  there,  both  working  and  singing. 
Probably  the  Lord  is  blessing  their  work,  and  making  them  greatly  useful ;  but  to 
us  they  seem  merely  as  a  sickle  passing  through  the  well  ripened  fields  of  grain, 
white  months  ago  to  the  harvest.  We  had  ample  opportunity  during  four  months 
in  Edinburgh  to  learn  the  religious  feelings  and  positions  of  the  people.  It  is  a  city 
exalted  as  to  heaven  in  point  of  privilege.  Its  religious  and  moral  life  is  a  glorious 
vindication  of  the  excellence  of  doctrinal  preacliing.  The  Edinburgh  ministers 
are  not  afraid  to  preach  doctrine,  and  what  is  called  "  hard  doctrine."  They  have 
not  failed  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God  ;  the  trumpet  tones  of  Knox  echo  in 
these  pulpits  still.  There  is  no  courting  people  to  church  with  sensational  subjects; 
no  offering  of  sugar — plain  preaching;  very  little  florid  rhetoric;  no  last  new  opera 
singer  and  expensive  choir.  None  of  these — merely  the  truth  in  Christ  Jesus. 
And  what  is  the  result?  On  Sunday  in  Edinburgh  the  streets  at  service  hour,  three 
times  a  day,  are  crowded  as  our  streets  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  last  stroke  of 
the  bell,  and  the  streets  are  as  deserted  as  midnight.  These  mighty  throngs  have 
gone  into  the  house  of  David,  to  hear  "  sound  doctrine. "  Edinburgh  has  been 
deficient  in  Sabbath  schools,  but  year  after  year  the  church  has  swelled  its  numbers 
from  the  children  of  its  families,  who  are  always  taken  to  church  for  the  pastor's 
instruction,  and  are  taught  at  home  by  their  parents. 

I  object  to  the  doctrine  of  Professor  Swing,  because  it  is  a  doctrine  which 
ministers  either  to  self-righteousness  or  to  despair.  He  teaches  us  that  we  are  to  be 
saved  by  our  own  works  ;  that  faith  saves  us  because  it  leads  to  a  holy  love,  that 
t^alvation  means  a  holy  love,  therefore,  he  who  expects  salvation,  and  has  the  assur- 
ance of  a  hope  in  heaven,  is  he  who  is  holy,  and  he  hopes  for  heaven  in  the  ratio 
of  his  present  holiness.  That  is  not  the  doctrine  that  is  taught  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Romans,  wherein  it  is  written  that  we  shall  not  be  saved  by  works,  but  by 
faith.  If  a  man  is  so  constituted  that  he  cannot  feel  that  his  own  righteousness  is 
enough  to  save  him,  then  he  can  only  fall  down  in  despair,  for  the  religion  of 
Professor  Swing  does  not  offer  a  hope  but  that.  Instead  of  Presbyterians  teaching 
"the  dark  doctrine  of  despair,  I  Bay  the  teaching  of  Professor  Swing  is  the  doctrine 
of  despair,  unless  it  is  the  doctrine  of  self-righteousness.  We  object  to  the  teaching 
of  Professor  Swing  upon  the  subject  of  justification  by  faith,  in  that  his  preaching 
makes  Christianity  [simply  an  exalted  morality.  The  reason  why  Christianity  is 
better  than  Hindooism  is  because  the  morality  of  Christianity  is  better  ;  the  reason 
why  Christ  is  better  than  Confucius  is  because  the  former  is  an  improvement  on  the 
latter ;  the  reason  why  Christ  is  a  better  saviour  than  Socrates  is  because  he  was  a 
better  man,  a  greater  teacher.     "  Christ  is  the  best  Saviour  "  we  ever  had. 

I  come  now  to  the  two  concluding  specifications  of  the  first  charge.  These 
specifications  have  a  historic  interest  as  related  to  this  prosecution.  The  history  of 
these  specifications  is  the  history  of  the  relations  in  which  Professor  Swing  and 
myself  stand  to  each  other.  Little  did  I  think  when  I  wrote  the  editorial  of  last 
fall  that  it  would  culminate  in  a  scene  like  this.  When  I  took  charge  of  The 
Interior,  I  knew  of  the  doubts  which  had. been  expressed  with  reference  to  Pro- 
fessor Swing's  theology.  I  had  seen  the  newspapers  of  other  churches  calling  in 
question  his  opinions  on  the  subject  of  inspiration,  and  entering  their  protest 
against  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago  for  sitting  in  silence  while  one  of  its  prominent 
members  gave  utterance  to  thoughts  in  direct  violation  of  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  whose  tendency  was  to  overthrow  the  integrity  and  authority  of  God's  holy 
word.  It  was  with  a  great  deal  of  diffidence  and  with  much  reluctance  I  entered 
upon  a  re-review  of  Professor  Swing's  sermon,  and  those  who  followed  the  discus- 
sion, and  remember  anything  about  that  editorial,  will  remember  something  of  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  written  and  the  language  in  which  it  was  couched.  If  I 
knew  anything  of  my  own  heart,  it  was  written  in  the  kindest  spirit,  in  an  apolo- 
getic vein  ;  if  anything  was  said  in  it  which  was  calculated  to  hurt  Professor 
Swing's  feelings,  I  am  sorry  for  it,  and  I  here  make  this  public  acknowledgment. 
I  wrote  that  editorial  in  the  hope  that  when  he  replied  thereto  he  would  have 
something  to  say  in  the  way  of  explanation,  and  that  his  explanatory  statements 
would  be  couched  in  such  frank  terms  as  would  remove  doubts,  and  restore  him  to 
the  confidence  of  those  who  had  questioned  his  expositions.  The  views  expressed 
by  Professor  Swing  during  the  controversy  were  so  pronounced  in  their  hostility 
to  what  we  regard  as  plenary  inspiration,  a  doctrine  which  has  received  the  special 
sanction  of  the  Chicago  Presbytery,  that  I  did  not  hesitate  to  say  on  one  occasion, 
that,  holding  such  views,  a  minister,  with  the  vows  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
upon  him,  could  not  consistently  remain  in  her  communion  as  a  minister.    Those 


128       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

among  you  who  have  watched  this  controversy,  know  how  it  advanced  ;  how  one 
thing  led  to  another,  until  in  a  final  editorial  I  did  say  that  there  were  those  who 
doubted — and  I  was  among  those — whether  Professor  Swing  believed  even  that 
Christ  was  God,  and  other  vital  doctrines.  Those  were  honest  doubts,  based  upon 
an  honest  perusal  of  his  published  writings;  and  it  was  in  connection  with  the 
expression  of  those  doubts  that  I  said  that  1  hoped  that  Professor  Swing's  published 
utterances  had  done  him  great  injustice,  and  I  placed  the  columns  of  The  Ititerior 
at  his  disposal,  in  order  that  ho  might  rectify  any  mistake  and  correct  any  false 
impressions  which  had  gone  abroad.  If  that  was  not  what  a  manly.  Christian 
course  would  dictate,  then  I  am  at  fault,  and  greatly  misapprehend  the  laws  ot 
Christian  courtesy  and  dignified  Christian  journalism.  I  have  no  word  to  say  in 
reference  to  those  who  honestly  and  sincerely  difler  with  me  as  to  the  propriety  of 
expressing  my  doubts.  The  expression  of  these  doubts  has  brought  on  me  a  weight 
of  odium  which  T  did  not  anticipate.  Now,  the  prosecution  of  this  case,  I  regret 
to  say,  has  not  removed  those  doubts,  but  has  only  served  to  vindicate  me  in  my 
own  eyes  as  to  the  justice  of  my  fornipr  position  ;  and  I  am  not  only  ready  to  say 
now  that  I  doubt  as  to  Professor  Swing's  position,  but  that,  with  respect  to  some 
of  the  doctrines,  I  do  not  believe  that  he  holds  them. 

I  will  now  call  attention  to  the  questions  raised  in  the  twenty-third  specifica- 
tion.   The  following  passages  from  a  sermon  called  "  Old  Testament  Inspiration :" 

These  thoughts  bring  me  now  to  the  structure  of  the  Psalms  of  David.  Many 
of  them  being  deeply  religious,  are  suitable  to  all  religious  hearts  everywhere  ; 
there  are  others  that  belonged  only  to  the  days  when  they  were  sung.  If  it  was 
permitted  the  Israelites  to  destroy  their  enemies,  and  thus  establish  the  better  their 
monotheism,  it  was  necessary  they  should  sing  battle  songs,  and  that  much  of  their 
hymnology  should  be  military.  In  days  of  an  American  struggle  with  England, 
the  song  of  "The  Star-spangled  Banner"  might  be  useful  and  truthful.  It  might 
impel  men  along  the  best  path  of  the  period.  In  France,  a  few  years  ago,  the 
"  Marseillaise  "  was  rising  with  power,  for  it  was  necessary  for  the  people  to  check 
the  reckless  ambition  of  Louis  Napoleon.  These  hymns  might  be  confessed  to 
possess  a  temporary  inspiration.  That  is  their  good  is  unmistakable.  But  let  the 
world  and  civilization  advance,  let  war  become  a  crime  and  a  barbarism,  let  peace 
hecome  not  only  an  article  of  religion  but  a  policy  of  all  nations,  let  all  its  disputes 
be  settled  by  arbitration  and  payment  of  damages,  and  in  that  golden  age  the  war 
songs  of  America  and  France  become  a  poor  dead  letter,  and  no  heart  remains  so 
war-like  as  to  sing  them.  Thus  with  such  psalms  as  the  109th.  They  had  a  tem- 
porary significance,  depending  altogether  upon  the  kind  of  work  the  Hebrews  had 
to  perform.  If  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  go  to  battle,  it  was  desirable  that  they 
should  have  a  battle-song  —  a  Marsellaise.  If  their  hands  must  do  bloody  work, 
they  were  entitled  to  sing  a  terrific  psalm.  But  the  moment  the  Hebrew  method 
of  life  passed  away,  the  moment  the  war  for  national  existence  ceased,  that  momemt 
the  109th  Psalm  lost  its  value.  For  as  the  bloody  Hebrew  war  is  over,  so  is  its 
battle  song.  There  is  no  logic  in  perpetuating  a  war-cry  after  the  war  itself  has 
passed  away. 

That  Professor  Swing  does  not  believe  that  the  109th  Psalm  is  the  inspired 
word  of  God  is  perfectly  plain  to  any  one  who  is  unprejudiced  and  unbiased,  if  we 
read  what  he  said  in  The  Interior  on  Sept.  18,  1873.     It  is  as  follows  : 

The  prominence  given  to  the  109th  Psalm  in  my  remarks  arises  only  from  the 
fact  that  it  has  long  been  a  public  test  of  the  value  of  any  given  theory  of  inspira- 
tion. This  is  one  of  the  places  at  which  the  rational  world  asks  us  to  pause  and 
apply  our  abundant  and  boastful  words.  Most  of  the  young  men,  even  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  know  what  the  historian  Froude  said  of  this  psalm  a  few 
years  since  :  "  Those  who  accept  the  109th  Psalm  as  the  word  of  God  are  already 
far  on  their  way  toward  auto-da-fes  and  massacres  of  St.  Bartholomew,"  and  while 
they  may  for  a  time  reject  these  words,  they  will  soon  demand  a  theory  of  inspira- 
tion very  diflFerent  from  the  indefinite  admiration  of  the  past. 

"It  has  long  been  a  public  test  of  the  value  of  any  given  theory  of  inspira- 
tion." What  does  that  mean?  It  means  this:  You  believe  in  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  do  you  ?  Do  you  believe  the  109th  Psalm  is 
inspired?  That's  a  puzzler  I  "It  has  long  been  a  public  test  as  to  the  value  of 
any  given  theory  of  inspiration."  Did  it  ever  bother  you,  my  brethren  ?  Can  you 
not  take  God's  authority  even  for  the  109  Psalm?  "'This  is  one  of  the  places 
where  the  rational  world  asks  us  to  pause  and  apply  our  abundant  and  boastful 
words."    "We  say  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God  ;  we  say  that  inas- 


ARGUMENTS  FOR    THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       129 

much  as  Josus  gives  authority  and  sanction  to  the  Old  Testament  in  words  which 
distinctly  afSrm  that  not  a  jot  or  title  can  pass  away  or  be  broken.  The  authority 
of  Jesus  Christ  covers  everything  to  which  he  attaches  His  signature.  There  is  no 
boasting  about  that.  The  Apostle  Paul  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  knowing 
what  he  was  about,  could  not  have  based  any  such  argument  upon  any  such 
Scripture  unle?8  the  whole  Scripture  was  inspired,  and  the  Apostle  Paul's  reason- 
ing takes  it  that  all  Scripture  is  inspired,  and,  therefore,  when  I  quote  it  I 
challenge  you  to  say  it  is  boastful.  It  is  simply  taking  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh,  and  the  Apostle  Paul,  God's  commissioned  servant,  as  authority  on  the 
subject. 

Does  he  believe  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  are 
inspired  in  such  a  sense  that  when  you  pick  up  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  second 
verse,  you  can  say  that  it  is  God's  word  ;  that,  lic^ht  upon  it  where  you  may,  it  is 
God's  word  ;  because  you  have  settled  the  prior  question  that  tha  Scripture  is  given 
by  inspiration  of  God  ?  Does  ho  believe  that?  If  he  does,  if  that  is  his  opinion, 
if  that  is  his  creed,  then,  sir,  of  all  the  curiosities  of  literature  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  there  never  was  a  greater  one  in  inconsistency  than  this,  which  I  am  going 
to  read. 

This  is  one  of  the  places  at  which  the  rational  world  asks  us  to  pause  and 
apply  our  abundant  words. 

Do  you  know  who  Proude  is  ?  He  is  not  a  Christian  in  any  sense  of  the 
world.  He  is  a  rationalist.  His  creed  is  reduced  to  such  small  dimensions  that  it 
would  not  take  long  to  count  its  articles.  He  quotes  Froude,  and  that  in  a  religious 
newspaper  which  goes  to  some  13,000  or  14,000  people.  "Would  they  gather  from 
it  that  he  believed  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  as  it  is  defined  in  our 
standards  ?     He  says : 

Most  young  men,  even  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  know  what  the  historian 
Froude  said  of  this  psalm  a  few  years  since :  "  Those  who  accept  the  109th  Psalm 
as  the  word  of  God  are  already  far  on  their  way  towards,  auto-da-fe  and  massacres 
of  St.  Bartholomew." 

And  the  intelligence  of  this  Presbytery  is  called  upon  to  decide  whether  such 
a  statement  as  that  can  be  regarded  in  a  light  favorable  to  his  belief  in  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  If  that  don't  mean  and  is  not  calculated  to  mean 
that  he  indorses  the  sentiment  he  quotes,  it  don't  mean  anything,  and  I  will  give 
up  reading  English  and  call  myself  a  fool.  [Sensation.]  You  may  put  this  down 
as  a  settled  fact :  that  as  long  as  these  words  stand  unretracted  in  history,  they 
stamp  him  as  denying  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and  it  would  be 
one  of  the  greatest  acts  of  inconsistency  ever  prepetrated,  for  this  Presbytery,  after 
having  pronounced  its  verdict  upon  plenary  inspiration,  and  having  accepted 
without  debate  the  report  of  its  committee  in  reference  to  two  sermons  preached 
by  one  of  its  ministers,  and  remanded  that  minister  to  his  own  Presbytery  for 
discipline,  if,  after  doing  that,  they  should  pass  a  sentence  of  acquittal,  stamping 
their  episcopal  seal  of  approval  upon  a  man  against  whom  can  be  laid  a  charge 
like  this. 

The  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  valuable  as  a  doctrine  because  it  guarantees 
the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures.  Now,  if  a  man  should  profess  to  believe  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  then  deny  what  would  give  value  to  that  inspira- 
tion, I  would  give  little  for  his  acknowledgment. 

I  wish  to  know  whether  this  book  which  I  cling  to — having  cut  adrift  from 
Rome,  cling  to  more  tenaciously — is  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  I  wish 
to  know  whether  it  carries  with  it  the  signature  of  Almighty  God,  and  whether  it 
will  hold  when  I  take  it  as  my  anchor.  This  is  why  I  wish  to  know  whether 
this  is  the  Word  of  God.  If  a  man  shall  say  he  believes  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  shall  still  say  that  notwithstanding  he  believes  they  are  not 
infallible,  then  the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures  goes  for  naught.  He  denies  the 
plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures ;  but  even  if  he  should  retract  this  broad 
statement,  and  say  he  was  in  error  when  he  made  it,  and  that  he  now  believes  in 
the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  I  should  not  have  closed  the  case  for  the 
prosecution  even  then  if  it  was  still  proved  that  he  does  not  believe  in  the  infallible 
authority,  when  I  rest  my  hopes  on  what  it  says,  those  hopes  remain  secure.  That 
he  does  not,  I  propose  to  prove. 

In  his  sermon  on  "  Old  Testament  inspiration  "  the  following  passage  occurs  : 

There  is,  it  seems  to  me,  no  other  conceivable  method  of  treating  the  Old 
Testament  than  that  found  in    the  word  eclecticiBm.      We  must  seek  out  its 


130       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

permanent  truths,  follow  its  central  ideas,  and  love  them  the  more  because  they 
were  eliminated  from  the  barbaric  ages  with  so  much  sorrow  and  bloodshed. 

The  question  before  us  is,  What  does  the  passage  say  ?  We  have  heard  in 
evidence — Dr.  Patterson  said  it — that  he  believes  this  passage  to  refer,  not  to  the 
eclecticism  of  authority,  but  to  the  eclecticism  of  use.  He  may  have  made  that 
statement  to  Dr.  Patterson  in  such  terms  that  he  can  have  no  poesibility  of  a 
reason  for  doubt ;  but  be  has  not  made  that  statement  to  us — he  lias  not  made  it  to 
the  world.  And  with  all  respect  and  deference  to  Dr.  Patterson,  we  must  submit 
that  in  a  trial  of  a  case  like  this  we  cannot  accept  such  a  side  statement  upon  such 
a  question.  We  do  not  know  what  that  conversation  was,  or  how  they  had  arrived 
at  that  conclusion ;  whether  Dr.  Patterson  showed  him  his  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  he  said,  "  these  are  my  sentiments,"  or  whether  he  showed  his  Confession  of 
Faith  to  Dr.  Patterson,  who  said,  "That  is  so." 

Dr.  Patterson,  (rising) — It  don't  matter  how  it  was  done;  it  was  very 
clearly  done. 

Professor  Patton  (resuming,  after  a  mere  glance  at  Dr.  Patterson) — That  is 
not  a  question  upon  which  you,  in  your  judicial  capacity,  can  pass.  The  sentiment 
stands  out  boldly  and  unrelieved  in  this  passage,  that  eclecticism  is  the  only 
system  which  you  can  adopt  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  We  want 
that  statement  denied. 

But  even  if  he  should  make  that  statement,  and  come  to  this  Presbytery  and 
tell  us  that  what  he  meant  by  eclecticism  was  the  eclecticism  of  use,  and  not  the 
eclecticism  of  truth,  the  case  is  not  closed  for  the  prosecution,  because  he  has  said 
a  great  deal  more  than  that.  In  his  article  in  The  Iniei'ior  be  makes  statements 
from  which  I  shall  quote.  He  admits  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  inspiration 
is  vague : 

After  the  Westminster  Confession  has  uttered  its  conclusions  about  the  Bible 
being  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  life,  it  remains  for  each  mind  to  find  as  best  it 
can  where  that  rule  lies,  and  whether  the  Divine  Spirit  is  always  equal  in  all 
parts  of  the  Iloly  Book. 

In  the  course  of  my  controversy  with  Professor  Swing,  it  had  come  out  that 
he  had  some  question  as  to  the  propriety  of  the  Israelites  slaughtering  the  Canaan- 
ites.  They  did  not  go  to  that  war  at  their  own  charges ;  and  when  he  intimated 
his  disapproval  of  the  course  which  the  ancient  people  took,  I  ventured  to  remon- 
strate with  him,  to  the  effect  that  the  people  were  perfectly  safe  in  following  a 
general ;  and  when  the  general  was  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  and  He  was  satisfied, 
we  should  not  complain.  He  did  not  accept  my  explanation  ;  and  when  he  came 
to  review  the  situation  he  condemned  the  Israelites.  When  I  said,  "If  you  do, 
you  must  cither  take  that  or  disbelieve  the  Bible,"  he  said:  "I  believe  the  Bible, 
but  I  condemn  the  Israelites."     This  is  what  he  wrote  in  The  Interior: 

The  bloody  human  passion  was  permitted  by  God  to  stand  upon  the  book, 
because  He  could  make  this  wrath  of  man  praise  Him  in  the  outcome  of  church 
life.  Your  apology  here,  that  God  was  Himself  the  general  of  the  armies,  and 
bad  a  moral  rit:;ht  to  kill  non-combatants,  is  one  which  has  long  filled  a  large 
place  in  this  debate;  but  it  must  be  perfectly  evident  that,  in  your  logic,  God  is 
thus  made  the  general  in  the  law  of  'eye  for  eye,'  upon  the  ground  that  if  he  has 
a  right  to  destroy  an  eye  by  disease,  or  a  foot  by  palsy,  he  has  a  right  to  command 
men  to  put  out  eyes,  or  cut  off  hands,  upon  a  large  scale,  here  or  there.  It  is 
barely  possible  that  my  discourse  may  have  contained  words  that  should  not  have 
fallen  upon  the  ears  of  a  Presbyterian  audience,  but  "it  contained  no  words  that 
made  God  appear  as  general  in  battles  that  surpassed,  in  cruelty,  those  of  Julius 
Cffisar,  and  no  words  that  bind  those  battles  up  in  the  world's  infallible  rule  of 
faith  and  practice.  That  spirit  of  warfare  was  accepted  of  God  from  humanity, 
because  He  could  overrule  a  human  evil  for  a  final  good,  by  tolerance,  and  not  by 
the  way  of  making  known  to  mankind  grand  truths  which  could  not  have  been 
reached  by  the  light  of  reason. 

If  I  am  at  liberty  to  construe  language  at  all,  this  sentence  means  that  the 
Jews,  although  God  had  given  them  an  explicit  command  to  go  and  slaughter  the 
Canaanites,  and  although  in  the  face  of  their  unwillingness  to  go  God  told  them 
He  would  punish  themlf  they  did  not  go,  Professor  Swing  objects  to  the  course 
they  pursued,  and  spoke  of  their  wars  in  disparaging  terms.  In  the  face  of  that 
statement,  but  two  positions  are  possible.  They  are :  that  God  told  the  Jews  to 
do  something  which  he  should  not  have  told  them  to  do ;  or  that  the  statenient 
that  He  did  tell  them  to  do  it  is  not  true— Moses  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding. 


ARGUMENTS  FOR    THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       131 

It  is  not  only  in  respect  to  the  wars  of  the  Jews  that  he  is  in  error.  It  is  in 
respect  to  the  laws  of  the  Jews.  He  says  they  are  unjust,  and  have  administered 
lo  human  depravity. 

[Here  ProCess')!' Patton  quoted  from  Professor  Swing's  letter  in  The  Interior 
of  September  4,  which,  after  taking  special  exception  to  the  harsh  Israelitish  laws 
relative  to  seduction,  concludes  as  follows]  : 

"If  David's  personal  character  had  been  preceded  by  generations  which 
punished  over  thirty  forms  of  offenses  with  death,  by  generations  which  slew 
women  and  children,  by  generations  which  punished  impuritj' by  a  fine  of  one 
animal  of  a  flock.  And  if,  reared  in  this  atmosphere,  David  sent  Uriah  to  the 
front,  and  thus  secured  'Uriah's  beautiful  wife,'  one  certainly  should  not  attribute 
this  immorality  'to  any  lack  of  revelation,'  indeed,  but  rather  to  an  absence  of 
that  quality  of  revelation  found  afterward  in  the  morals  of  Jesus." 

Ho  speaks  of  the  laws  of  Moses  as  cruel  and  unjust ;  they  were  given  to  Moses 
by  God,  aud  if  they  are  cruel  the  fault  is  not  that  of  Moses,  but  of  God.  In  the 
article  on  the  "Interpretation  of  the  Apocalypse,"  published  in  the  Sunday-school 
Teacher  for  July,  1873,  he  not  only  doubts  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament, 
but  of  the  New. 

He  cannot  be  accused  of  being  very  partial  to  that  belief  to  which  this  Pres- 
bytery is  pledged. 

Let  us  take  one  more  authority  —  the  Bible.  This  very  book  opens  with 
this  sentence : 

"The  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  God  gave  unto  Him  to  show  unto 
His  servant  things  which  must  shortly  come  to  pass  ;  and  He  sent  a  sign  by  His 
angel  unto  His  servant,  John." 

And  it  closes  with  this  passage: 

"And  He  said  unto  him,  ttiese  sayings  are  faithful  and  true ;  and  the  Lord 
God  sent  His  angel  and  showed  unto  His  servant  things  which  must  shortly  be 
done.  I  testify  to  every  man  that  beareth  the  words  of  this  book,  if  any  man  add 
unto  these  things,  God  shall  add  unto  him  the  plagues  that  are  written  in  this 
book  ;  and  if  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  things  that  are  written  in  this 
book,  God  shall  take  away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of  life. 

[This  closed  his  discussion  of  the  case  so  far  as  related  to  the  first  charge. 
He  thanked  the  Moderator  for  the  kindness  and  equity  with  which  he  had  pre- 
sided, and  for  the  indulgence  he  had  shown  him  ;  and  the  Presbyters  for  the  patient 
attention  they  had  given  his  long  argument.  He  had  one  apology  to  make,  and 
made  it  thus]  ; 

If,  in  the  rapidity  of  unpremeditated  speech,  I  have  crossed  the  boundary 
which  Christian  gentlemen  should  observe,  I  hope  this  Presbytery  will  forgive 
me.  I  do  remember  that  once,  at  least,  since  I  began  this  argument,  I  made  an 
expression  for  which  I  wish  to  make  a  proper  acknowledgment.  I  did  say  that 
this  Presbytery  ought  not  to  acquit  Professor  Swing  of  the  charges  preferred 
against  him  ;  and  I  said  that  if  they  did,  I  would  impeach  the  Presbytery  at  the 
bar  of  a  higher  court.  Such  a  sentence  ought  not  to  have  passed  my  lips,  and  I 
hope  the  Presbytery  will  receive  my  retraction  of  it  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is 
made.     [Applause.] 

Passing  to  the  second  charge,  I  propose  to  show  that  it  is  true,  by  the  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  Shufeldt,  and  by  his  written  statements. 

The  declaration  of  the  accused  will  not  substantiate  his  innocence ;  but  the 
admission  of  the  accused  is  sufficient  to  establish  his  guilt.  He  has  admitted  on 
the  floor  of  this  Presbytery  that  he  does  not  receive  and  adopt  the  Confession  of 
Faith  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Word  of  God.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  has  said  that  much  in  so  many  words,  but  I  do  say  that  his  plea 
cannot  be  considered  in  any  other  way.  He  says  a  distinction  does  exist  between 
Prcsbyterianism  as  formulated  in  past  times  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  actual. 
I  was  never  informed  of  that.  If  we  are  not  to  be  held  to  the  formulated  the- 
ology of  the  Church,  then  I  wish  to  know  what  is  the  basis  of  Presbyterian  faith? 
"Which  is  the  Church  actual,  the  Church  of  Pittsburgh  or  the  Church  of  Chicago  ? 
He  has  repudiated  those  doctrines  which  "look  toward  a  dark  fatalism,  and  teach 
that  religion  is  despair. "  Now,  there  are  no  doctrines  of  fatalism  in  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  It  is  not  for  me  now  to  protest  against  the  charge  that  the 
Presbyterian  Church  holds  fatalism,  but  to  say  that  when  he  referred  to  those 
doctrines  he  could  have  referred  to  no  other  doctrines  than  those  doctrines  which- 
speak  of  God's  sovereignty,  and  he  has  left  a  very  important  element  of  the  Con- 


132       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

fession  of  Faith  behind  him.  He  says  he  has  left  behind  him  the  doctrine  of  hell, 
as  it  is  taught  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  with  such  terrible  plainness.  He  has 
charged  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church  the  idea  that  she  has  pandered  to 
infidelity. 

I  pass  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Shufeldt.  "While  that  gentleman  revealed  a 
very  keen  tenacity  for  that  tree  about  whose  branches  there  was  so  much  discus- 
sion, and  while  there  was  a  great  elTort  made  to  show  that  infant  damnation  waa 
one  of  the  five  points  of  Calvinism  that  were  repudiated,  yet  he  testified  that  either 
he  had  abandoned  at  least  two  of  those  doctrines  commonly  known  as  the  live 
points  of  Calvinism. 

Dr.  Patterson — Let  me  call  the  attention  of  the  prosecutor  to  the  fact  tliat 
Mr.  Shufeldt  said  these  two  points  were  branches  of  the  tree  marked  "abandoned." 

[Professor  Patton  picked  up  a  newspaper,  and  referring  to  it,  read  JSir. 
Shufeldt's  testimony.     Then,  resuming  his  speech:] 

He  has  taught  the  doctrine  of  Sabellianism  ;  ho  gave  his  approval  to  the 
doctrine  that  Christianity  does  admit  of  three  offices  ;  and  he  ridiculed  the  doctrine 
of  the  threeness  of  one  and  the  oneness  of  three.  It  is  fair  to  believe  that  he 
believes  what  he  teaches  ;  else  that  Presbytery,  in  acquitting  him,  makes  a  charge 
of  far  more  gravity  than  I  prefer  against  him.  He  has  abandoned  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith.  I  shall  not  argue  that  point,  because  I  argued  it  yesterday. 
We  are  led  to  conclude  that  he  does  not  believe  in  it.  He  does  not  believe  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  If  I  have  not  made  that  clear,  I 
could  not  make  it  clear  by  arguing  it  a  week. 

[Professor  Patton  closed  his  argument  by  citing  the  case  of  Craighead,  and 
that  of  Albert  Barnes,  showing  that  the  Craighead  case  could  not  be  urged  in 
defence  of  Professor  Swing,  unless,  (1.)  The  language  complained  of  is  capable, 
without  violence  of  a  favorable  construction.  (2.)  The  accused  disavows  the  error 
which  his  language  is  alleged  to  teach,  (3.)  And  avows  his  belief  in  the  doctrine 
alleged  to  be  impugned. 

The  basis  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  the  Confession  of  Faith.  The  issues 
between  Professor  Swing  and  myself  are  not  issues  th  at  could  be  brought  out  between 
any  two  persons  who  both  held  the  Confession  of  Faith.  The  simple  question  is, 
does  he  hold  these  doctrines  in  any  sense  compatible  with  an  honest  construction 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  They  are  issues  that  would  have  been  fought  out  on 
the  floor  of  a  New  School  Presbytery  with  as  much  zeal  as  on  the  floor  of  an  Old 
School  Presbytery.  They  are  issues  that  go  to  the  foundations  of  Christianity — 
which  touch  the  question  of  the  Kule  of  Faith,  which  refers  to  the  Trinity — on 
which  we  rest  our  hopes  of  heaven. 

The  case  now  stands  with  you ;  you  have  the  evidence  and  the  arguments. 
You  know  that  it  has  been  proven  in  this  court  that  he  uses  equivocal  language  in 
respect  to  vital  doctrines  ;  that  he  has  spoken  in  derogation  of  the  standards  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  with  respect  to  doctrines  that  underlie  the  whole  system 
of  Christianity  ;  and  finally,  that  he  is  taught  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith.  He  says  the  church  actual  is  something  ditferent  from  the  church 
historic ;  he  admits  that  he  has  left  many  of  these  doctrines  ;  he  has  been  proven 
to  have  departed  from  many  others.  And  now  I  leave  you  to  say  whether  the  charges 
with  their  specifications  are  not  sustained. 

AFTERNOON  SESSION. 

Long  before  the  hour  of  re-opening  had  arrived  the  chapel  was  crowded  almost 
to  sufibcation  by  vast  accessions  to  the  Swing  side — for  the  most  part  of  ladies, 
who  pressed  themselves  and  were  pressed  forward  into  every  available  spot.  The 
Moderator's  tap  for  order  hushed  the  most  animated  confusion  of  female  voices 
that  ever  was  heard  in  that  place. 

Mr.  Noyes  immediately  proceeded  with  his  argument.  He  said  : 
"We  are  confronted  to-day  by  that  which,  if  we  are  not  willfully  blind,  must 
appear  to  all  as  a  "great  and  serious  trouble."  Scarcely  has  the  honeymoon  passed 
which  followed  the  happy  marriage  of  the  Old  and  New  School  branches  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  when  a  new  danger  arises  to  threaten  our  peace.  The 
sound  of  voices  which  were  raised  in  joyful  thanksgiving  to  God  over  that  blessed 
union  have  hardly  died  away,  when  suddenly  our  hearts  are  pained  and  filled  with 
anxiety  by  the  presence  of  unexpected  peril.  Upon  the  married  life  of  these 
churches,  over  all  of  which  a  spirit  of  peace  and  love  has  been  breathed,  dark 
clouds  now  begin  to  arise,  threatening  storm,  and  wrath  and  ruin.    It  would  seem 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       183 

that  "whom  God  hath  joined  together,"  man  is  in  danger  of  "putting  asunder." 
Until  recently  there  was  peace  and  happy  fellowship  within  the  bounds  of  this 
Presbytery.  In  one  branch  of  the  Church  there  had,  unhappily,  been  strife  in  the 
days  that  are  gone ;  but  in  the  general  good  feeling  consequent  upon  the  reunion, 
past  differences  seemed  destined  to  a  speedy  oblivion  ;  and  there  was  every  promise 
that  we  should  abundantly  realize  "how  good  and  how  pleasant  a  thing  it  is  for 
I  rethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity."  But  from  our  "deep  dream  of  peace"  we 
h'lvc  been  suddenly  awakened.  How  it  came  about  you  all  know,  and  I  will  not 
take  your  time,  upon  which  I  shall  necessarily  have  to  make  such  large  demands, 
to  recount  the  story.  I  will  therefore  proceed  at  once  to  the  business  in  hand ; 
and,  before  entering  upon  any  examination  of  the  argument  which  has  been  made 
before  you  by  the  prosecutor  in  this  case,  I  desire  to  ask  your  attention  for  a  little 
time  to  the  form  of  the  complaint  upon  which  the  defendant  is  arraigned  at  your 
bar. 

When  this  indictment  was  presented  the  defendant  was  somewhat  peculiarly- 
placed.  If  his  counsel  had  moved  to  quash  it,  there  would  have  been  an  instant 
outcry  on  the  part  of  the  prosecutor  and  hie  friends,  that  we  were  attemj)ting  to 
smother  inquiry,  and  to  avoid  a  fair  investigation.  If  we  made  no  such  motion, 
we  felt  ourselves  in  the  position  of  seeming  to  approve  of  the  indictment  as 
correct,  both  in  form  and  in  substance.  "We  did  not  wish  to  move  to  quash  it,  nor 
were  we  willing  to  be  understood  as  regarding  it  rightly  drawn.  In  this  state  of 
things  I  desired  at  the  outset  to  make  an  explanatory  statement.  But  to  this 
objection  was  made,  and  so  the  case  went  to  trial.  In  both  the  charges  here 
exhibited,  and  in  nearly  all  the  specifications  under  them,  there  was  such  an 
obvious  and  glaring  defect,  either  of  substance  or  of  form,  that,  in  any  purely, 
equitable,  and  legal,  not  to  say  technical  view,  they  ought  never  to  have  been 
entertained.  They  should  have  been  turned  incontinently  out  of  court.  In  sup- 
port of  this  statement,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  (1)  the  nature  of  a  charge, 
(2)  of  a  specification,  and  then  (3)  show  how  neither  the  charges  of  this  indict- 
ment, nor  the  specifications  by  which  it  is  sought  to  prove  them,  are  such  as  to 
make  a  valid  case  for  trial. 

In  discussing  these  points,  let  it  first  be  distinctly  admitted  that  the  extreme 
nicety  and  refinement  of  criticism  with  which  indictments  are  handled  in  civil 
courts,  would  be  quite  out  of  place  in  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal  like  this.  And  yet  it 
will  be  admitted  by  all,  that  there  are  certain  rales  founded  on  natural  justice, 
which  ought  to  be  observed,  and  held  inviolable  by  ecclesiast'cal  courts.  Because  an 
indictment  here  may  not  properly  be  handled  in  that  remorseless  way  which  pre- 
vails in  civil  courts,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  may  be  drawn  in  such  a  way  as  to 
violate,  in  its  charges  and  in  its  specifications,  the  most  obvious  principles  of  jus- 
tice. But  that,  in  the  case  before  us,  this  has  been  done,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to 
prove. 

A  CHAEGE. 

The  general  term  charge  may  be  understood  as  applying  to  the  whole  accusa- 
tion made  against  the  accused  person.  This  accusation  consists  of  two  distinct 
parts:  the  first,  which  is  specially  called  the  charge,  consists  in  designating  the 
general  offense  of  which  the  accused  is  charged  ;  and  the  second,  which  is  called 
the  specification  to  the  charge,  consists  in  the  alleging  of  certain  specified  acts  done 
by  the  accused,  which  are  supposed  to  constitute  or  prove  the  general  offense 
named  in  the  charge.  A  charge,  it  is  plain,  ought  to  set  forth  some  one  general 
offense,  which  is  so  excfptional  in  its  oharacter  as  to  imperatively  call  for  ecclesi- 
astical censure.  The  charge  must  also  clearly  and  distinctly  define  the  offense,  so 
that  the  accused  may  know  precisely  of  what  he  is  accused.  Vague  charges  are 
objectionable,  and  unfair,  to  the  last  degree. 

Applying  now  these  principles  to  the  charges  in  this  indictment,  what  should 
be  our  judgment  upon  them  ?  It  is  noticeable  that  they  are  both  negative  in 
form. 

The  prosecution  charges  that  the  defendant  has  not  been  "faithful  and  zealous 
in  maintaining  the  truths  of  the  gospel,"  and  that  he  "does  not  sincerely  receive 
and  adopt  the  confession  of  faith." 

The  first  charge  is  indefinite  to  the  extent  of  not  naming  at  all  any  punishable 
offense.  Would  the  prosecutor  come  into  this  court  and  claim  that  he  has  been 
and  is  faithful  as  a  minister  ?  Such  a  boast,  if  he  were  to  make  it,  would  of  itself 
be  a  swift  witi>«ss  against  him  for  unfaithfulness.   You  cannot  run  the  line  between 


134       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

the  faithful  and  the  unfaithful.  You  cannot  find  the  point  where  faithfulness  ends 
and  unfaithfulness  begins  ;  so  that  this  side  tlial  puint  a  map  may  go  uncensurod 
of  his  brethren,  and  beyond  it  be  justly  exposed  to  llieir  sentence  of  condemnation. 
All  are  zealous,  faithful,  and  diligent  in  some  degree,  but  in  some  degrees,  also, 
all  come  short. 

To  say,  therefore,  that  a  man  is  unfaithful  and  wanting  in  zeal  is  simply  to 
affirm  a  fact  which  is  as  true  of  the  prosecutor  as  it  is  of  the  defendant,  which  is 
true  of  the  members  of  this  court,  and  of  all  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  "Let  him 
that  is  without  sin  among  you  cast  the  first  stone."  This  charge  does  not  embrace, 
therefore,  a  punishable  otfense  at  all.  In  the  Presbyterian  Church,  a  minister  who 
lacks  zeal  and  is  unfaithful  does  not  thereby  become  amenable  to  discipline.  Hence, 
to  make  unfaithfulness  the  basis  of  a  formal  charge,  is  a  great  injustice.  The  ranks 
of  the  Presbyterian  ministry  are  full  of  noble  and  self-sacrifioing  men  ;  but  there  is 
not  one  of  them  all  against  whom  this  first  charge  could  not  with  perfect  truth  be 
brought.  And  hence  a  charge  so  utterly  vague  and  indefinite  as  this  cannot  justly 
be  entertained  by  a  judicial  body.  Nor  is  the  vagueness  at  all  relieved  when  we 
come  to  examine,  as  in  due  time  I  shall  do,  the  specifications  to  the  charge. 
Charge  2  is  still  more  objectionable.  It  arraigns  the  accused,  not  for  what  he 
teaches,  let  us  carefully  observe,  but  what  he  thinks.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the 
specifications  might  embody  facts  that  would  so  reveal  the  state  of  the  respondent's 
mind  as  to  show  that  he  does  not  receive  the  Confession  of  Faith.  They  might  do 
this,  but  they  do  not.  They  contain  only  the  prosecutor's  own  inferences  and 
conclusions  which  he  draws  from  Professor  Swing's  language.  The  charges  are 
founded  upon  the  supposed  state  of  a  man's  mind,  and  not  upon  any  clear  and 
unquestionably  heretical  utterances  from  his  lips.  To  judge  the  heart  is  the  pre- 
rogative, not  of  the  prosecutor  in  this  case,  not  of  the  members  of  this  court,  but 
of  God  alone.  Let  me  illustrate  what  I  mean  by  saying  that  the  specifications 
under  these  charges  are  so  indefinite  as  not  to  sustain  or  make  manifest  what  is  the 
offense  to  which  the  respondent  is  to  answer.  The  very  first  specification  under 
Charge  1  begins  with  setting  forth  what?  A  fact  ?  Not  at  all:  but  simply  the 
conclusion  of  the  prosecutor,  in  this  language  :  "Ho  is  in  the  habit  of  using  equiv- 
ocal language" — who  is  the  judge  of  equivocal  language? — "to  the  manifest  injury 
of  his  reputation  as  a  Christian  minister,  and  to  the  injury  of  the  cause  of  Christ. 
"Specification  three: 

"He  has  manifested  a  culpable  disregard  to  the  essential  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity by  giving  the  weight  of  his  influence  to  the  Unitarian  denomination,  and 
by  the  unworthy  and  extravagant  laudation  in  the  pulpit,  and  through  the  press 
of  John  Stuart  Mill,  a  man  who  was  known  not  to  have  believed  in  the  Christian 
religion." 

la  that  the  setting  forth  of  a  fact  ? — of  an  act  which  clearly  reveals  and 
manifests  to  this  court  the  guilt  of  the  respondent?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the 
setting  forth  only  of  a  conclusion  of  the  prosecutor  himself. 

SPECIFICATION  FOUR. 

"In  the  sermon  aforesaid  language  is  employed  which  is  derogatory  to  the 
standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church." 

Again  an  exhibition  of  the  prosecutor's  inferences. 

SPECIFICATION  NINE. 

"  He  has  given  his  approval  in  the  pulpit  to  the  doctrine  commonly  known  as 
Sahellianism." 

Whatever  he  may  have  done  in  the  judgment  of  Professor  Patton,  certainly 
there  are  multitudes  who  have  made  themselves  familiar  with  the  facts  of  this 
trial  as  they  have  been  developed,  and  spread  out  before  you,  who  do  not  at  all 
agree  with  him  in  the  conclusions  which  he  sets  forth  here,  that  Professor  Swing 
is  a  Sabellian,  and  that  he  has  given  his  public  approval  to  that  doctrine.  I  might 
go  on  through  every  one  of  the  specifications  which  are  set  forth  under  .  these 
charges,  and  show  that  they  are  all,  so  far  as  they  make  out  anything  culpable, 
simply  the  judgments  and  views  of  the  prosecutor  himself. 

I  come  next  to  speak  of  the  specification.  And  here,  in  defining  what  the 
specification  is,  and  what  it  should  embrace,  I  follow  the  highest  authority  (O'Brien 
— Military  Law  and  Courts-Martial).  The  principles  to  be  stated  are,  I  am  sure, 
such  as  will  commend  themselves  to  the  judgment  and  reason  of  every  member  of 


ARGUMENTS  FOR    THE   PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       135 

this  bodj'.  The  specification  must  always  charge  the  accused  with  having,  at  such 
a  time  and  at  such  a  place,  done  certain  acts  which  amount,  or  which  are  thought 
to  amount,  to  the  offense  stated  in  the  charge.  "  The  fact  or  facts  ought  to  be  very 
distinctly  specified  or  alleged,  in  such  manner  that  neither  the  accused  nor  the 
court  can  have  any  difiiculty  in  knowing  what  is  the  precise  object  of  investiga- 
tion. Every  fact  in  the  specification  should  be  such  as,  if  proved,  would  convict 
the  accused  of  the  charge,  or  at  least  might  convict  him  of  it."  But  does  any 
member  of  this  court  believe  that  one-half  of  these  specifications  can  be  regarded 
as  meeting  this  reasonable  requirement?  "  Any  alh*gation  in  the  specitTcation 
Avhich,  if  proved,  could  not  convict  the  accused  of  any  degree  of  the  crime  charged 
is  irrelevant,  and  should  be  rejected.  Its  retention  will  not  vitiate  the  charge,  but 
it  is  surplusage,  and  no  evidence  should  be  received  thereon.  It  is  always  better 
to  reject  such  matters  at  first."  Again,  it  is  said  to  be  "  highly  improper  that  the 
inferences  of  the  prosecutor  should  appear  in  the  specifications.  The  facts  alone 
should  be  stated;  it  is  for  the  court  to  draw  the  inference.  Such  inferences  of 
the  prosecutor  would,  however,  be  mere  surplusage,  and  no  evidence  should  be 
received  on  them."  "  There  should  be  no  uncertainty  or  vagueness  in  the  specifi- 
cation." 

These  principles,  embodied  in  rules,  are  so  obviously  sound,  and  the  construc- 
tion, in  strict  conformity  with  them,  of  any  indictment  which  is  to  be  tried  in  an 
ecclesiastical  court,  is  so  clearly  important  to  protect  the  interests  of  an  accused 
person,  that  I  need  not  say  a  word  in  commending  them  to  you.  And  yet  the 
indictment  before  this  body,  and  on  which  your  brother  presbyter  has  been  ar- 
raigned, has  been  framed  in  conspicuous  violation  of  all  these  principles.  The 
members  of  this  court  have  boon  enveloped  in  a  great  cloud  of  words  —  words 
which  state  next  to  nothing  as  regards  actual  facts,  and  which  insinuate  next  to 
everything  in  the  shape  of  the  prosecutor's  inferences  —  and  through  such  a  hazy 
and  distorted  medium  as  this  they  are  asked  to  look  at  their  accused  brother,  and 
see  if  he  do  not  appear  an  unfaithful  minister  and  a  heretical  teacher.  We  have 
involution  and  convolution  illustrated  before  us  here  to  such  a  bewildering  extent, 
that  this  body  might  well  bo  adjudged  incapable  of  determining  the  degree  of 
guilt  which  should  be  attached  to  him  who  holds  to  the  doctrine  of  "  evolution," 
or  religion's  progress  and  growth.  Nor  does  it  help  the  matter,  nor  at  all  serve 
to  lift  us  out  of  this  haze  of  indefiniteness,  which,  like  a  London  fog,  envelops  us 
all,  that  the  prosecutor  comes  and  protests  in  open  court,  as  he  did  at  the  outset  of 
this  trial,  that  he  cannot  make  these  charges  and  specifications  any  more  definite; 
for  this  is  tantamount  to  a  confession  on  his  part  that  he  has  no  case.  [Applause.] 
If  a  man  were  guilty  of  murder,  it  would,  I  suppose,  be  possible  to  say  so  dis- 
tinctly. If  he  were  guilty  of  falsehood,  the  English  language  is  rich  enough  in 
resources  to  enable  one  to  charge  that  also  with  definiteness,  precision,  and  even 
emphasis.  And  if  this  respondent  at  your  bar  has  been  guilty  of  any  well-defined 
and  unquestionable  ecclesiastical  oflense,  it  ought  not  to  be  impossible  to  say  what 
offense,  and  the  statement  should  be  one  of  fact'and  not  of  inference. 

But  that  the  charges  in  this  indictment  do  not  give  us  any  light  upon  this 
point,  I  have  already  shown.  That  the  specifications  leave  us  equally  in  the  dark 
is  that  which  is  now  and  easily  to  be  shown. 

Beginning  with  the  first  of  the  specifications,  and  assuming  the  charge  to  be 
in  proper  form,  the  object  of  the  specifications  is  to  point  wherein  the  defendant 
has  failed  in  zeal,  and  faithfulness,  and  diligence,  as  a  minister.  The  particular 
instances  in  Avhich  the  lack  of  the.<e  qualities  has  been  manifested  should  be 
exhibited  in  the  specifications.  We  look  to  see  them  stand  there,  and  find  nothing 
of  the  kind. 

Specification  first  is  no  specification  at  all.  The  substance  of  it  is  that  equivo- 
cal language  has  been  used  in  sermons  printed  in  the  Chicago  Pulpit,  the  Alliance, 
and  in  the  volume  entitled  "  Truths  for  To-day."  In  these  sermons,  the  refer- 
ences to  cardinal  doctrines  are  declared  to  bo  vague,  and  it  is  charged  that  they 
have  not  been  unequivocally  aflirmed.  Now  the  object  of  specification  is  to  tell  a 
man  of  what  particular  dereliction  ho  is  accused,  that  he  may  deny  his  guilt  in 
regard  to  that  particular.  This  specification  permits  the  prosecutor  to  seek  his 
evidence  in  any  of  the  volumes  of  sermons  alluded  to,  while  it  gives  the  accused 
no  notice  as  to  the  particular  utterance  or  mode  of  speech  which  is  objected  to. 

Specification  second  is  that  the  effect  of  Professor  Swing's  oft'ense  has  been  to 
awaken  doubts  in  the  minds  of  some  of  his  brethren,  and  to  cause  Unitarians  to 
claim  him.     It  is  further  asserted  that  Mr.  Swing,  knowing  that  he  was  suspected 


136       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

of  doctrinal  unsoundness,  has  not  declared  his  position  by  preaching  sermons 
especially  for  tluit  purpose,  nor  in  any  other  way.  This  specification  is  remark- 
able only  for  what  Hamlet  would  call  a  "  plentiful  lack"  of  definiteness.  Men  are 
indicted  for  crime,  but  who  ever  heard  of  a  man  being  indicted  for  the  efiects  of  a 
crime?  But  here  the  accused  is  charged  with  the  consequences  of  his  pretended 
offenses,  and  that,  knowing  these  consequences,  he  did  not  reform. 

Now,  if  the  accused  had  been  guilty  of  an  ecclesiastical  offense,  he  should  be 
charged  specially  with  that,  and  tried  upon  it,  and  not,  as  is  here  most  unjustly 
done,  be  arraigned  for  the  consequences  of  a  pretended  offense,  and  for  not  reform- 
ing, though  knowing  these  consequences. 

Specification  third,  in  its  first  averment,  declares  that  the  accused  has  given 
the  weight  of  his  influence  in  favor  of  Unitarianism.  Now,  an  influence  grows 
out  of  acts,  and  to  charge  a  man  with  using  an  influence  is  charging  him  with  a 
conclusion.  Instead  of  that,  he  should  be  charged  with  certain  specific  acts,  and 
he  should  be  punished  for  these  acts,  if  he  is  guilty  of  them,  and  if  they  consti- 
tute a  disciplinable  oflense,  but  not  otherwise.  He  is  next  said  to  be  guilty  of  un- 
worthy and  extravagant  laudation  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  But  this  is  a  conclusion 
which  the  prosecutor  arrives  at  in  his  own  mind.  If  the  accused  has  extravagantly 
lauded  Mr.  Mill,  he  did  it  by  the  use  of  certain  words,  which  ought  to  have  been 
quoted  in  the  specification,  and  on  these  he  ought  to  be  tried.  But  instead  of  this, 
the  prosecutor  has  drawn  his  own  conclusion  from  the  words  which  he  does  not 
quote,  and  then  seeks  to  prosecute  the  defendant  on  the  conclusion  which  he  draws. 

In  this,  therefore,  the  specification  is  defective  in  form.  He  sets  forth  the 
conclusion  which  the  prosecutors  draw  from  the  language  of  the  defendant,  but 
not  the  language  itself.  It  is  for  the  court  to  draw  the  conclusions.  But  may  not 
a  man  speak  words  of  praise  of  an  atheist?  Not  of  his  atheism,  for  with  doing 
this  Professor  Patton  does  not  go  so  far  as  to  charge  Professor  Swing.  "  The 
unworthy  and  extravagant  laudations"  of  Mr.  Mill  had  respect,  as  even  the 
prosecutor  himself  confesses,  only  to  his  great  abilities,  acknowledged  by  all,  and 
to  his  fruitful  labors  in  the  fields  of  philosophy,  of  literature,  and  of  political, 
moral,  and  social  reform.  In  all  these  departments  of  human  effort,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  Mr.  Mill  was  an  earnest  and  conscientious  worker.  And  having  been 
such,  is  it  a  sin  to  speak  well  of  him  so  far  as  these  labors  are  concerned?  To  say 
that  Mr.  Mill  labored  with  all  his  might  to  tear  down  and  destroy  the  Christian 
religion  is  simply  to  say  what  is  notoriously  untrue.  He  did  nothing  of  the  kind. 
It  was  not  till  his  autobiography  appeared,  almost  at  the  close  of  his  life,  that  men 
knew  what  his  opinions  were  on  the  subject  of  religion.  He  had,  to  all,  except  to 
his  intimate  friends,  if  not  even  to  those,  kept  his  opinions  concealed.  He  was 
not  known  as  an  atheist,  nor  even  as  an  enemy  of  religion,  except  in  the  sense 
that  he  was  not  known  as  its  friend.  But  even  if  he  had  been  an  open  and  vin- 
dictive enemy  of  Christianity,  should  we  therefore  refuse  to  recognize  his  great 
gifts  ?  Professor  Swing  may  have  formed  too  favorable  an  opinion  of  the  man, 
and  of  his  general  work.  His  view  is  one  with  which  the  prosecutor  evidently 
does  not  coincide,  and  with  which  members  of  this  court  very  possibly  may  not 
coincide.  But  what  then?  Is  it  not  better  to  err  on  the  side  of  charity  than  on 
the  side  of  severity?  Professor  Swing  did  not  fail  to  see,  nor  did  he  fail  to  point 
out  very  emphatically,  the  defect  in  Mr.  Mill's  character.  Upon  his  life,  so 
abounding  and  so  magnificent  in  its  labors  in  behalf  of  philosophy  and  reform,  he 
wrote  the  word  "  vanity  "  as  his  final  verdict,  in  broad  and  legible  characters,  and 
even  though  you  suppose  that  his  judgment  of  him  as  a  philosopher,  as  a  political 
economist,  and  as  a  reformer,  be  a  too  favorable  one,  are  you  going  to  regard  this 
as  an  ecclesiastical  misdemeanor  which  required  a  formal  censure  ?  I  have  not  so 
poor  an  opinion  of  this  court  as  to  believe  that  they  will  for  one  moment  entertain 
such  a  thought.  No,  sir.  Professor  Patton  is  wrong.  He  is  wrong  in  thinking 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  to  be  commended  and  advanced  by  treating  every 
unbeliever  in  it  as  a  heathen  man,  a  publican.  He  is  wrong  in  himself  insisting 
upon  the  principle  of  refusing  to  commend  what  is  commendable  in  another, 
simply  because  he  is  not  all  that  we  know  he  should  be.  Not  so  did  the  Saviour, 
for  He  commended  one  almost  warmly  for  the  good  qualities  that  he  possessed  ; 
but  He  did  not  omit  to  say,  "  One  thing  thou  lackest."  Lacking  that,  he  lacked 
all  things.  It  ia  not  in  any  important  respect  different  from  this,  that  Professor 
Swing  has  spoken  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  He  has  not,  therefore,  done  in  this  matter 
what  amounts  even  to  an  indiscretion,  least  of  all  to  an  offense,  and  hence  all  the 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       137 

prosecutor's  Ingenious  and  skillful  pleading  does  not  deserve,  as  I  am  persuaded  it 
will  not  receive  at  your  hands,  any  serious  consideration. 

Professor  Swing  is  next  charged  -with  having  said,  in  substance,  in  the  Lake- 
side  Monthly,  that  liobert  Patterson  and  Eobert  Collyer  preached  the  same  doc- 
trines. This  also  is  a  conclusion  of  Professor  Patten,  and  one  which  does  manifest 
violence  to  the  language  which  the  defendant  employed.  He  said  that  the  two 
ministers  preached  practically  ;  and  to  infer  from  this  that  they  preached  the 
same  Gospel,  and  that  the  gospel  is  mutable,  is  about  as  reasonable  as  to  assume 
that  two  men  are  declared  to  preach  the  same  gospel  because  they  both  preach 
earnestly,  or  both  preach  from  manuscript,  or  are  both  eloquent  men. 

In  like  manner,  the  prosecutor's  comments  upon  the  words  "  local  gospel " 
grossly  perverted  Professor  Swing's  meaning,  as  if  he  had  said  that  the  gospel 
■was  one  thing  in  Pittsburgh,  and  another  in  St,  Louis,  and  still  another  in  Chicago. 
I  submit  that  no  fair-minded  man,  reading  another  for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting 
at  his  meaning,  would  be  in  danger  of  mistaking  the  meaning  of  these  words.  He 
v?-ould  understand  them  as  referring  to  the  diftetent  modes  of  presenting  the  gos- 
pel, and  not  as  signifying  a  different  gospel  for  each.  In  this  sense,  the  local  gospel 
where  I  preach,  and  the  local  gospel  where  Professor  Patton  preaches,  are  very 
different  from  each  othor;  and  I  suppose  they  always  will  be,  unless  —  which  is 
exceedingly  unlikely — the  prosecutor  comes  to  adopt  substantially  my  methods  of 
stating  and  illustrating  the  truth.  [Applause.]  Mr.  Moderator,  it  is  hard  to  be 
patient  with  a  critic  so  unreasonably  captious,  so  grossly  unfair,  so  absurdly 
whimsical,  as  the  framer  of  this  indictment  has  shown  himself  to  be.  I  say,  un- 
hesitatingly and  reverently,  that  if  he  were  to  subject  the  language  of  Christ  to 
■  the  same  torture  that  he  applies  to  Professor  Swing,  he  would  have  no  difficulty  at 
all  in  making  Him  out  a  teacher  of  false  doctrines.  [Applause.]  There  is,  then, 
nothing  in  this  specification  that  is  definite  except  one  act,  and  one  saying.  The 
act  is  that  Professor  Swing  gave  a  lecture  in  aid  of  a  unitarian  church,  and  the 
saying  is  that  he  considered  religion  a  model  of  virtue.  But  neither  the  act  nor 
the  saying  amounts  to  an  offense. 

By  no  fair  construction  can  this  act  of  lecturing  in  aid  of  the  chapel,  erected 
in  memory  of  Mary  Price  Collier,  be  taken  out  of  the  domain  of  Christian  casuis- 
try and  private  conscience.  There  is  where  it  belongs,  and  there  is  where  the 
adjudication  must  be  held,  and  not  in  this  court.  You  may  say,  Mr.  Moderator, 
that  you  would  not  perform  such  a  service,  and  it  would  be  your  right  to  decline 
any  such  invitation,  if  you  were  to  receive  one.  But  you  have  no  right  to  im- 
peach the  motives,  still  less  to  demand  the  formal  censure,  of  a  brother  who,  in 
the  exercise  of  his  ov/n  judgment,  and  in  conformity  with  the  decisions  of  his  own 
conscience,  renders  this  service  when  asked  to  do  so.  So  great  and  good  a  man, 
and  so  sound  a  theologian  as  the  venerable  Dr.  Hodge,  gave  his  countenance  and 
support  publicly  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  on  a  memorable  occasion  which 
we  all  remember.  Yet  it  has  been  the  fashion  with  Protestants  —  and  I  presume 
the  prosecutor  has  followed  the  fashion  —to  denounce  this  Church  as  "  the  mother 
of  harlots" — that  great  Babylon  whose  exemplary  and  terrible  overthrow  is  set 
forth  in  the  visions  of  the  Apocalypse.  Liberty  of  private  judgment  must  be 
allowed  here.  Because  you  think  that  temperance  means  total  abstinence,  you 
must  not  arraign  the  man  who  cannot  see  exactly  with  your  eyes.  Because  you 
count  it  an  ofl'ense  against  good  morals  and  Divine  law  to  ride  in  the  street-cars 
on  Sunday,  you  have  no  right  to  indict  before  the  Church  a  man  who  may  happen 
to  think  and  act  dilferently.  Because  you  believe  it  to  be  a  sin  against  God  and 
man  to  use  tobacco,  you  must  not  therefore  undertake  to  set  up  your  own  private 
opinion  as  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice  for  others. 

Besides,  if  it  is  a  disciplinable  offense  for  a  Presbyterian  minister  to  help 
Unitarianism  by  lecturing — and  it  is  simply  a  begging  of  the  question  to  say  that 
it  does — is  it  not  equally  a  disciplinable  offense  for  a  Presbyterian  elder  to  keep  on 
sale  Unitarian  and  even  infidel  books  ?  The  lecturer  did"  his  work  without  pay, 
but  the  bookseller  carries  on  his  trade  for  the  purpose  of  honorable  and  private 
gain.  No,  sir.  You  cannot  adjudicate  on  a  question  of  this  kind.  It  is  a  gross 
invasion  of  a  private  right  to  undertake  to  do  so.  So  much  for  the  act  which  this 
specification  sets  forth  as  an  offense. 

How  is  it  with  the  saving  ?  Professor  Swing  is  arraigned  for  saying  that  the 
gospel  is  a  mode  of  virtue.  Well,  is  not  that  a  good  definition  of  the  gospel  on  its 
practical  side?  It  certainly  is  not  a  mode  of  vice.  The  language  docs  not  refer  to 
the  gospel  in  the  abstract,  or  as  a  system  of  doctrines  received  by  the  understand- 


138       ARGUMENTS  FOR    THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

ing,  but  it  sets  forth  that  Gospel  by  its  fruits.  It  declares  that  the  effect  of  the 
Gospel  is  to  make  men  virtuous,  to  lead  them  to  holiness,  and  to  prepare  them  for 
a  better  life  hereafter.  When,  therefore,  the  prosecutor  criticises  and  carps  at 
this  languacje,  as  if  there  were  no  natural  nor  even  possible  explanation  of  it 
which  would  make  it  accord  with  evangelical  teaching,  the  presumption  is  at  least 
a  fair  one  that  he  believes  in  a  salvation  that  is  divorced  from  morals. 

Having  spoken  an  hour,  Mr.  Noyes  said  he  was  too  much  exhausted  to  go  on ; 
and  the  Presbytery  therefore  adjourned  until  half-past  nine  Friday  morning. 

FEIDAY,  MAY  15TH. 

PROF.  SWING'S   PLEA. 

The  Chicago  Presbytery  met  again,  at  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
again  devoted  its  energies  to  a  hearing  of  the  arguments  on  behalf  of  Ijhe  defense. 
There  was,  as  usual,  a  large  attendance  despite  the  inclement  weather.  The  court 
was  called  to  order  at  2:30  o'clock  by  the  moderator,  Kev.  Mr.  Mitchell,  and  after 
prayer  the  floor  was  tendered  to  Kev.  Mr.  Noyes  for  a  continuance  of  the  argu- 
ment, which  he  cut  short  on  Thursday  in  consequence  of  illness.  Instead  of  Eev. 
Mr.  Noyes,  Prof  Swing  advanced,  dropped  his  overcoat,  and  made  his  bow.  His 
appearance  behind  the  pulpit  was  greeted  with  great  applause.  He  spoke  as 
follows : 

Mr.  Moderator:  It  was  the  understanding  among  my  brethren  that  the 
burden  of  this  matter  should  not  fall  upon  me,  both  on  account  of  my  ill  health 
and  distaste  for  it,  and  up  to  this  morning  I  supposed  I  should  have  nothing  to 
say;  but  my  counsel  having  very  poor  health,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  assist  hira 
this  afternoon  by  speaking  before  you  for  the  space  of  perhaps  an  hour,  and  touch- 
ing upon  some  of  the  points  which,  perhaps,  I  could  clear  of  doubt  more  easily 
than  he  could  himself.  I  know  not  what  may  bo  the  etiquette  of  the  case.  I  hope 
the  prosecutor  will  consider  it  as  no  breach  of  etiquette.  I  do  not  know  the  exact 
duties  of  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  [laughter]  but  would  state  that  the  ground  I  will 
pass  over  will  not  be  passed  over  by  Brother  Noyes,  and  thus  time  will  be  saved, 
— at  least  not  lost  by  our  both  speaking. 

I  thought  it  would  be  my  pleasure  to  fulfill  the  words  of  Lucretius,  "that  it  is 
the  province  of  some  to  sit  upon  the  calm  mountain  summit  and  see  the  poor  sail- 
ors struggling  and  toiling  in  the  storm  and  waves  beneath  ;"  but  the  illness  of  my 
counsel  has  disturbed  my  repose,  and  has  compelled  me  to  go  down  into  this  battle- 
field. I  shall,  I  hope,  not  be  compelled  to  go  beyond  the  skirmish  line,  for  the 
sound  of  war  frightens  me  [laughter],  especially  when  the  war  is  waged  for  con- 
quest, or  for  the  extension  of  slavery  beyond  its  present  limits.  As  some  statesman 
said  he  would  not  want  to  tell  a  lie  for  anything  less  than  an  empire,  so  it  does  not 
seem  desirable  to  go  into  a  theological  fight  where  the  price  of  victory  or  the  pain 
of  defeat  is  exceedingly  small.  Xenophon  says  of  Clearchus  that,  notwithstanding 
his  bright  armor  and  royal  robes,  yet,  when  the  baggage  wagons  got  entangled  or 
stalled,  he  would  put  his  own  shoulder  to  the  wheel,  going  himself  into  the  mud. 
The  theological  baggage  wagons  upon  my  side  of  the  house  are  blockaded  to-day, 
and,  like  the  old  general,  willingly  I  descend  into  the  mud.  [Laughter.]  Let  me 
ask  your  attention  to  Stuart  Mill.  When  he  died,  our  statesmen  had  just  been 
breaking  their  hearts  over  the  pursuit  of  presidential  honors.  Greeley  and  Chase 
had  both  died  of  grief  over  lost  honors.  In  such  an  hour  I  thought  it  a  piece  of 
good  fortune  that  I  could  hold  up  before  the  public  a  name  that  found  sufl[icient 
honor  and  sufficient  object  of  life  in  the  greatness  of  personal  character.  And 
hence  I  said : 

"If  it  were  not  for  such  men  as  Mr.  Mill  coming  here  and  there  in  human 
life,  we  might  fail  to  know  what  that  thing  called  soul  is.  I  do  not  know  where, 
in  the  public  men  of  our  land,  we  can  see  so  well  the  picture  of  human  dignity. 
Swayed  out  of  balance  by  a  love  of  oflSce  and  gold,  disturbed  by  a  storm  of  bad 
passions,  our  public  men  reveal  the  soul,  not  in  its  nobleness,  but  in  some  shape 
that  begs  for  pity  and  forgiveness. 

"Our  great  men  are  all  said  to  die  disappointed,  and  half  broken-hearted, 
because  they  fail  to  catch  a  four-year  bauble  from  the  tumultuous  crowd.  To  run 
for  president,  and  then  die  in  glory  or  in  cloud,  according  to  the  counting  of  the 
votes,  has  become  a  brief  history  of  some  of  our  greatest  men.  It  is  a  sad  remem- 
brance of  Mr.  Greeley  and  Mr.  Chase,  that  their  failure  to  reach  a  great  otBce 
turned  their  days  into  a  winter  of  discontent. 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       139 

"All  over  our  land  it  seems  to  be  forgotten  that  a  human  soul  may  be  some- 
thing to  which  no  office  can  add  anything,  and  from  which  no  political  defeat  can 
take  anything  away. 

"God  has  in  no  way  connected  human  greatness  with  a  ballot-box. 

"  The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power. 
And  all  that  rank  and  forlune  e'er  gave 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour; 
And  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

**  From  such  a  scene  it  is  sweet  to  turn  to  a  man  who  might  have  honored  any 
office,  but  whom  no  office  could  have  honored.  Nothing  lasting  for  four  years 
could  have  added  to  a  soul  great  before  that  four  years  and  great  afterward.  Mr. 
Mill  could  scarcely  have  known  when  an  earthly  honor  came  to  his  forehead,  or 
when  it  departed.  Like  Marcus  Aurelius,  whose  laurels  of  virtue  were  greater 
than  the  throne  of  the  Roman  empire,  Mr.  Mill's  own  forehead  was  nobler  in 
itself  than  it  could  have  been  rendered  by  all  the  political  wreaths  of  bis  generation. 

"  True  greatness  never  reveals  nor  cheriS'hes  much  ambition,  for  the  gift  of 
mind  and  the  possession  of  a  profound  character  leave  little  for  the  soul  to  wish  or 
for  earth  to  give.  Hence  in  the  blessed  life  of  the  Saviour  we  perceive  no  trace  of 
popular  ambition,  but  everywhere  simple  greatness  of  spirit,  as  if  that  were  the 
supreme  destiny  of  rational  being, 

"  Oh,  what  an  era  would  begin  In  our  land,  if,  instead  of  waiting  for  something 
outside  of  self  to  come  to  us  and  honor  us,  our  citizens  should  unfold  the  glory 
within  them,  as  a  flower  sends  forth  beauty  and  perftime  from  its  own  opening 
heart." 

And  then,  this  was  the  chief  point :  that  the  glory  of  such  a  mind  and  of  such 
a  philosophy  as  Mill  possessed  came  to  him  through  Christianity  ;  for  though  Mr. 
Mill  was  not  a  Christian,  yet  Christianity  had  always  been  all  around  him  and  had 
forced  him  into  every  virtue  he  possessed  ;  had  given  him  the  entire  character  of 
the  nineteenth  century ;  just  as  Lady  Hester  Stanhope,  flying  to  the  south  land  to 
escape  England,  carried  with  her  everywhere  English  customs  and  English  thought. 
So  Stuart  Mill,  though  an  atheist,  carried,  in  all  his  thoughts  and  in  all  his  life, 
every  germ  of  Christianity  except  his  personal  belief. 

Mill's  character  was  all  wrought  out  in  a  Christian  atmosphere  although  his 
father  vainly  tried  to  shield  the  child  from  the  influence  of  the  great  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ — tried  in  vain.  And  then  I  said  what  a  liberal  world  need  regard 
most  was,  not  that  he  was  not  a  Presbyterian  or  a  Methodist,  but  that  the  poor 
unfortunate  man  had  no  trace  of  any  kind  of  religion  in  his  soul.  We  would 
have  been  thankful  if  he  had  had  any  form  of  religion  in  his  heart. 

Now,  while  I  was  thus  dealing  with  Stuart  Mill,  what  was  my  prosecutor 
doing  ?  Had  he  called  together  2,000  to  tell  you  how  Stuart  Mill  had  been  sent  to 
perdition  from  all  eternity  ?  Was  he  faithful  as  a  great  public  man  to  his  trust  ? 
That  is  a  matter  of  opinion.  But  it  is  my  impression  that  he  was  praising  Agassiz, 
not  because  he  held  an  orthodox  creed  (Oh  !  no,  that  was  not  what  his  liberal 
world  rejoiced  over),  but  he  was  rejoicing  because,  upon  some  occasion,  that  great 
naturalist  had  acknowledged  a  supreme  being,  and  just  barely  escaped  being  an 
infidel.  And  did  the  prosecutor  avail  himself  of  Agassiz's  death  to  preach  at 
McVicker's  that  a  prayer  is  only  oifensive  to  God  unless  it  be  connected  with  a 
belief  in  the  Deity,  or  expiatory  atonement  of  Christ?  Did  he  rise  to  the  greatness 
of  the  occasion  and  inform  the  community  that  there  was  no  hope  for  Agassiz's 
soul?  Did  he  come  forward  with  his  ordination  vows  upon  him  and  hand  over 
Agassiz  to  perdition  in  the  following  language  from  the  confession  of  faith  : 
"Much  less  can  men.  not  professing  the  Chri:-tian  religion,  be  saved  in  any  other 
way  whatsoever,  be  they  ever  so  diligent  to  frame  their  lives  according  to  the  light 
of  nature,  and  the  law  of  that  religion  they  profess ;  and  to  assert  and  maintain 
that  they  may  is  very  pernicious,  and  to  be  detested." 

And  yet,  in  his  paper,  that  went  to  14,000  fatnilies,  he  held  up  Agassiz  as  a 
Christian  and  scientific  man. 

Let  us  pass  to  a  second  offense  alleged  by  the  prosecutor:  "We  know  not 
what  nor  where  is  our  God,  our  heaven."  This  sermon  was  preached  to  show  the 
reason  why  the  religious  world  had  always  been  full  of  debate.  It  came  partly 
from  the  fact  that  moral  ideas  have  no  such  definiteness  as  is  enjoyed  by  mathe- 
matical ideas.  There  has  never  been  one  set  of  men  to  hold  that  twice  two  mako 
four,  and  another  set  to  hold  that  twice  two  mako  five,  because  these  ideas  are 
fixed.     But  there  has  been  one  set  of  men  to  hold  to  the  theory  of  an  expiatory 


140       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

atonement  and  another  to  hold  to  the  theory  of  a  propitiatory  atonement  because 
men  have  no  slate  and  pencil  by  which  to  fix  these  ideas  beyond  all  debate,  no 
pyramid  upon  which  to  measure  these  things.  The  prosecutor  had  expounded  the 
confession  of  faith  afid  declared  that  he  had  a  standard.  But  unfortunately  the 
•whole  religious  world  are  not  Presbyterians,  and  unfortunately  these  Presbyterians, 
who  are  here  to-day,  do  not  understand  it  alike. 

Therefore  we  do  not  mathematically  know  what  our  God  is,  and  we  are  not 
called  upon  exactly  to  know.  You  do  not  know  it  as  you  know  that  two  and  two 
are  four  or  that  they  are  not  five ;  and  hence  the  debates  and  discords,  just  such  as 
has  gathered  us  here  to-day. 

But  the  prosecutor  has  not  arraigned  me  only  for  this  dreadful  idea  that  we 
do  not  know  mathematically  about  our  God.     He  has  not  arraigned  me  alone. 

If  the  Uoly  Spirit  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  furnish  poor  me  with  such  a  tex* 
as  that  of  the  sermon  "  Clouds  and  Darkness  are  Bound  About  Him,"  the  prose- 
cutor knows  where  to  lay  his  cbarges  and  specifications  In  this  particular.  It  is 
intimated  in  Job  that  no  one  by  searching  can  find  out  God,  and  hence  when  the 
presbytery  shall  past  sentence  upon  me  1  shall  insist  upon  their  making  Job  and 
the  97th  psalm  particeps  criminis  in  this  case — [applause  and  laughter] — and  if  in 
such  good  company  as  Job  and  the  Psalmist,  I  should  not  much  fear  the  prosecutor 
of  this  case,  he  need  not  be  much  surprised.  [Laughter.]  I  will  anticipate  the 
reply  of  the  prosecutor.  I  will  not  wait  for  him  to  rise  to  explain.  He  will  plead 
that  the  bible  was  written  before  the  confession  of  faith  and  that  the  Psalmist  was 
in  doubt  about  the  nature  of  God  and  that  Paul  shrank  before  the  mystery  of 
heaven,  saying  "  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,"  because  they  lived  before  the 
Westminster  confession  had  been  formulated — [laughter] — at  Westminster,  and 
expounded  at  Chicago.  In  the  revised  editions  of  the  bible,  when  readers  shall 
come  upon  my  text,  "clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  him,"  they  will  no 
d-'ubt  see  a  marginal  reference  "for  refutation  of  this  idea  see  Prof.  Patton's 
c':.arges  and  specifications."     [Laughter.] 

But  to  be  serious  again.  Prof  Patton  points  to  the  confession  of  faith  and 
reads:  "  God  is  a  spirit."  Well,  does  the  prosecutor  know  what  a  spirit  is  ?  It 
is  to  be  hoped  he  will  elucidate  this  point  and  also  tell  us  where  heaven  is,  for  he 
will  not  be  so  unkind  as  to  arraign  a  brother  for  want  of  information  v/hen  he 
himself  possesses  it  and  refuses  to  deliver  it  to  me  and  to  the  presbytery.  A  young 
man  stepped  up  to  a  clergyman  east  and  asked  him  if  it  was  possible  to  know  all 
about  God.  The  clergyman,  who  was  a  droll  fellow,  as  Trowbridge  says,  replied 
that  personally  he  had  no  such  knowledge, but  that  there  was  a  man  out  in  Minne- 
sota who  knew  all  about  him.  [Laughter.]  Well,  now,  brethren,  if  we  have 
this  information  at  some  point  nearer  than  Minnesota,  it  ought  to  be  forthcoming 
— [laughter] — and  free  to  all. 

Let  us  pass  to  another  idea  that  has  perplexed  the  prosecutor:  "  This  multi- 
tude measures  a  great  revelation  of  God  above  that  day  when  earth  possessed  but 
one  man  or  family,  and  that  one  without  language,  and  without  virtue."  "  In 
tht!  first  human  family  God  could  no  more  display  His  perfections  than  a  musician 
like  Mozart  could  unfold  his  genius  to  an  infant  or  to  a  South  sea  islander."  Now 
the  meaning  of  that  passage  is  this  :  I  know  not  how  he  may  understand  it,  but 
the  sermon  was  upon  the  days  that  are  past.     "  Ask,  now,  the  days  that  are  past. 

Look  into  history "  and  I  found,  in  looking  into  history,  that  the  glory  of 

God  unfolds  itself  as  the  human  race  advances.  "  The  6,000  years  past  are  the 
great  unfolding  of  the  Almighty ;  not  in  the  Darwinian  sense,  nor  in  the  Spencerian 
sense,  but  in  the  Christian  sense.  Adam,  however  innocent,  and  however  beautiful 
in  his  character,  as  I  believe  he  was  both  innocent  and  beautiful,  had  no  cities,  no 
arts,  no  eloquence,  no  poetry,  no  cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  no  benevolence,  no  charity 
for  the  multitude.  Hence  God  no  more  unfolded  his  perfections  in  Adam  than 
Mozart  or  Beethoven  could  make  known  their  vast  realm  of  music  to  an  infant  or 
a  savage.  It  is  the  grand  opening  up  of  the  world  that  gives  us  the  glory  of  God  ; 
the  manifold  glory  of  God.  The  many-pictured  glory  of  God  is  all  thrown  forward 
and  made  visible  by  this  ever-unfolding  earth,  and  from  the  very  moment  God 
created  Adam  his  own  glory  went  marching  forward." 

If  the  prosecutor  knew  the  meaning  of  the  illustration,  he  would  know  that 
this  language  would  not  imply  that  Adam  was  either  an  infant  or  a  savage.  It 
simply  means  that  God's  glory  is  too  large  a  spectacle  to  be  cast  upon  Adam  alone. 
It  required  all  the  6,000  years  of  humanity  combined  together  to  reveal  this 
wisdcm,  and  power,  and  grace,  and  manifold  glory  of  God.     Why,  the  prosecutor 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       141 

has  taken  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  out  of  the  world,  and  has  the  world  just  as 
great  in  Adam  alone  as  it  is  in  the  whole  human  race. 

And  then  I  went  on  to  illustrate,  or  to  apply  this  thought:  "So  each  individ- 
ual cannot  gather  up  the  glory  of  his  life  in  any  one  year.  It  must  lie  all  over 
his  past.  It  is  all  his  past  he  must  drag  along  after  him,  and  if  he  has  for  50  years 
fed  the  poor  and  blessed  them  like  a  Saviour,  or  if  he  has  cared  for  the  slave  like  a 
Wilberforce,  all  his  life,  or  preached  like  a  Paul  or  a  Wesley  all  his  life,  he  will 
go  into  futurity  with  all  this  glorious  record  back  of  him."  And  here  the  bible 
must  be  arraigned,  for  it  says  "their  works  do  follow  them"  and  the  converse 
was  shown  to  be  true,  that  if  a  human  soul  spent  life  in  seeking  gold  only,  or  in 
seeking  wicked  pleasures,  or  in  buying  and  selling  slaves  or  even  in  prosecuting 
heretics,  that  long  life  thus  spent  would  come  dragging  after  the  soul  into  eternity. 
And  I  said  that  "no  man  can  go  to  heaven  gloriously  unless  he  can  look  sweetly 
back."  If  this  be  heresy,  Mr.  Moderator,  write  me  down  as  a  heretic,  and  make 
the  letters  large  and  plain.'  Why,  even  old  Livy  said,  "You  must  keep  continu- 
ally looking  at  the  past,  because,"  he  says,  "things  that  are  past  may  be  repented 
of,  but  they  never  can  be  erased."  And  one  of  our  own  poets  says  :  "Tomorrow 
you  may  do  your  worst,  for  I  lived  yesterday."  And  old  Martial  says:  "Did'st 
thou  say  thou  wilt  live  to-morrow?  He  is  a  wise  man  who  lived  yesterday." 

To-day  is  the  sublime  part  of  life,  because  it  is  contiaually  making  that 
yesterday  which  will  always  follow  us,  go  where  we  may,  for  glory  or  for  shame. 

And  hence,  I  rebuked  the  young  people  present  for  always  living  in  the 
future,  and  paying  no  attention  to  the  past.  And  I  quoted  from  Dryden  to  them, 
saying : 

"Trust  on  and  think  the  morrow  will  repay ; 
The  morrow's  falser  than  the  former  day  ; 
Lies  worse,  and  while  it  says  you  shall  be  blest, 
Steals  all  the  pleasures  that  you  once  possessed," 

Let  us  come  now  to  the  dear  Penelope  and  Socrates.  [Laughter.]  My  breth- 
ren, you  must  excuse  me  for  treating  this  case  with  sometning  like  levity,  for  it 
has  not  in  it  to  me  one  particle  of  solemnity. 

Now  that  sermon  was  all  regarding  the  value  of  being  above  saying  or  seem- 
ing. It  was  on  Soul  Culture.  The  idea  was  that  the  value  of  life  lies  not  in 
what  creed  one  says  over  and  over,  but  in  what  creed  one  lives.  And  hence  I 
said:  "  A  soul  with  a  defective  creed  may  be  higher  and  may  be  nobler  than  a 
soul  which  knows  more  but  which  disregards  all  its  precepts" — an  ideal  have 
heard  all  my  life  in  the  Presbyterian  church. 

Dr.  MacMaster,  whom  the  prosecutor  succeeds,  legally  and  chronologically, 
said  that  he  believed  that  "somewhere  on  the  confines  of  heaven  would  be  found 
Socrates  and  Penelope."  And  I  think  our  general  assembly,  a  few  years  ago, 
oftered  a  premium  to  some  one  who  would  produce  the  best  tract  upon  the  condi- 
tion of  the  heathen  in  the  future  world  ;  and  Dr.  Smythe,  of  South  Carolina,  who 
took  the  prize  said,  "All  those  heathen  who  live  up  to  the  light  of  their  best 
knowledge  might  hope  for  happiness  beyond." 

I  did  not  say  how  great  was  the  happiness  of  Penelope  or  Socrates.  But  the 
prosecutor  has  unwittingly  arraigned  Jesus  Christ.  I  fear  my  zealous  friend  or 
enemy,  friend  I  guess,  does  not  read  his  bible  as  much  as  he  does  his  confession  of 
faith.  Butj  no  wonder,  for  he  says:  "We  must  guard  against  too  great  attach- 
ment to  scripture  phraseology,  and  must  wait  to  have  our  religion  well  formfl- 
lated."  [Laughter.]  Eegarding  Socrates  and  Penelope  we  shall  now  read  from 
the  words  of  Christ.  Did  you  know  He  has  spoken  of  them  ?  He  has.  "  Woo ! 
unto  thee,  Chorasin  (Catherine  II.),  for  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  Tyre  and 
Sidon  (Socrates  and  Penelope)  in  the  day  of  judgment  than  for  thee."  Now  wo 
again  anticipate  the  objection  of  the  prosecutor.  He  will  say  this  scripture  was 
announced  before  the  confession  was  formulated, — [laughter] — and  that  my  ordi- 
nation vows  were  upon  me.  Well,  in  subsequent  editions  of  the  bible,  readers 
will  find  a  marginal  reference  upon  this  passage  from  Christ,  "For  refutation  of 
this  passage  about  Tyre  and  Sidon,  see  Prof.  Patten's  on  Socrates  and  Penelope, 
chap.  10.  sec.  24."  [Laughter.]  But  let  us  pass  to  other  things.  The  learned 
prosecutor  after  unfolding  to  you  the  evolution  theory  of  Spencer  and  others,  says, 
as  usual,  Mr.  Swing  holds  these,  and  yet  I  am,  I  believe,  the  only  Chicago  min- 
ister who  has  published  a  sermon,  in  part,  against  that  theory.  It  is  singular  that 
while  I  only  have  published  a  sermon  against  the  evolution  thereof,  I  should  be  the 
one  arraigned  for  not  doing  it.    While  tho  prosecutor  was  proving  the  divinity  or 


142       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

deity  of  Christ,  I  don't  known  which,  from  the  date  Anno  Domini,  claiming  that 

no  nation  would  reckon  its  years  from  anything  less  than  a  God,  while  he  was 
thus  learning  the  divine  origin  of  Mahomined  and  of  the  Olympiads  of  Greece, 
and  of  Romulus  and  Kemus,  I  was  on  the  same  Sunday  trying  to  overthrow  the 
Sp'ncerian  theory  of  evolution.  Uere  is  what  I  said:  "It  is  not,  certainly,  a 
myth  that  there  is  a  human  race;  and  hence,  there  must  have  been  a  first  pair  in 
tins  long  series,  and  this  first  pair  must  have  had  a  first  home  and  a  creator  just 
at  hand  ;  and  this  pair  must  have  made  their  first  move  in  virtue  or  sin;  and 
from  what  sin  wo  now  see  in  the  world,  not  much  doubt  can  remain  as  to  what 
line  of  conduct  this  first  pair  followed,  and  that  they  early  left  a  paradise  of  virtue 
is  the  verdict  of  history.  The  theory  most  in  conflict  with  this  bible  picture  of 
primitive  man  is  the  almost  popular  notion  that  man  is  a  gradual  result  of  pro- 
gress in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  never  had  a  paradise,  but  is  on  the  way  toward 
one,  from  a  cellular  and  electric  starting  point  a  million  years  back.  Against  this 
theory,  however,  rises  up  the  fact  that  in  the  thousands  of  years  of  history  no 
animal  is  showing  the  least  sign  of  passing  over  into  that  moral  consciousness, 
that  selfhood  which  so  wonderfully  distinguishes  man.  The  highest  order  of 
brutes  are  doing  absolutely  nothing  toward  forming  a  language  or  toward  reaching 
that  consciousness  of  'me'  and  not  'me,'  which  joins  man  to  the  divine;  there  is 
no  effort  visible  on  the  part  of  the'  most  intelligent  qiiadrumana  to  build  a  school- 
house  or  start  a  country  newspaper ;  and  if  in  the  historic  period  no  progress 
whatever  has  been  made,  and  that  too  with  the  advantage  of  human  association, 
v/hat  could  they  have  done  in  two  historic  periods  ?  If  6,000  years  give  nothing, 
what  will  6,000,000  years  give  ?  The  best  reason  I  can  myself  bring  to  bear  upon 
this  matter  leads  me  to  see  man  setting  forth  as  man  and  setting  forth  from  a 
creator;  hence  he  had  a  place  which  we  may  call  Eden,  and  lowly  reason  may 
join  the  bible  in  giving  it  river  banks  and  trees  and  flowers  and  the  song 
of  birds." 

The  prosecutor  has  read  my  sermons  tolerably  well  only.  Let  us  pass  now  to 
the  109th  psalm.  I  am  very  glad  to  see  that  this  matter  has  at  last  been  put  to 
rest.  The  prosecutor  has  wholly  given  up  all  that  he  claimed  here.  It  was  my 
theory  you  know,  that  this  was  a  special  psalm,  no  part  of  the  perpetual  hymno- 
logy  of  the  world  not  inspired  for  all  times,  like  the  23d  psalm  or  the  90th.  My 
theory  was  that  it  was  an  adaptation  to  a  military  age,  when  the  church  advanced, 
not  by  persuading  its  enemies  but  by  exterminating  them  ;  a  psalm  dictated  by 
the  Almighty  for  an  age  a  hundred  or  five  hundred  years  or  more,  and  that  Christ 
has  announced  the  perpetual  law  the  everlasting  law  of  life,  when  He  has  said  that 
you  shall  pray  for  your  enemies  and  bless  them  that  persecute  you  and  despite- 
fully  use  you. 

My  point  was  that,  as  Christ  repealed  a  divorce  law  which  was  divinely  given 
for  a  certain  period  only,  so  He  did,  by  His  person,  repeal  also  a  psalm  full  of 
curses,  and  took  it  away  from  everlasting  hymnology  of  life ;  that  the  same  God 
who  passed  a  bad  divorce  law,  could  inspire  a  bad  psalm  also,  and  that  when  He 
recalled  the  one.  He  could  recall  the  other.  And  though  I  may  be  mistaken,  yet 
my  principle  is  founded  right  on  the  inspiration  of  the  bible. 

But  this  idea  that  it  was  a  perpetual  psalm,  the  prosecutor  has  at  last  given 
up,  for  he  says  now  that  the  109th  psalm  was  written  as  a  curse  upon  Judas 
Iscariot. 

This  is  all  I  want.  Only  his  theory  is  narrower  than  mine,  for  my  theory 
was  that  it  was  used  by  the  Jews  as  a  military  hymn  for  hundred  of  years,  and 
then,  by  divine  command,  applied  also  to  Judas  Iscariot.  But  if  the  prosecutor 
tells  us  that  it  was  even  too  bad  for  the  Jewish  people  to  sing,  and  that  I  laid 
dormant  a  thousand  years  waiting  for  a  great  traitor  like  Judas  to  come,  before 
the  psalm  should  spring  into  life,  I  have  not  in  my  heart  any  reason  to  object. 
And  Judas  being  now  dead,  the  psalm  has  been  abrogated  from  Christian 
hymnology,  I  trust, — expired  by  limitation, — [laughter] — if  Judas  is  indeed  dead. 
[Laughter.] 

I  know  not  whether  anyone  needs  a  word  with  regard  to  those  Hebrew  wars, 
but  I  will  make  a  remark  or  two  regarding  them.  My  position  all  along  has  been 
this  :  That  God  in  the  bible  revealed  two  forms  of  His  will ;  that  in  some  parts  of 
the  bible  He  expresses  Himself  absolutely,  as  in  the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount.  He 
there  announces  everlasting  principles  for  all  the  human  race  everywhere,  but 
that  in  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  God  accepts  of  a  temporary  kind  of 
morality,  and  that  God  was  everywhere  influenced  by  the  presence  of  man,  and 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       143 

was  not  promulging  His  own  abstract  law,  but  was  everywhere  accommodating 
Himself  to  the  presence  of  a  sinful  race  ;  and  hence,  all  through  the  Old  Testament, 
it.  is  not  God  alone  that  is  marching  along — it  is  God  and  a  wicked  race.  And 
hence,  when  he  permitted  or  ordered  the  Israelites  to  go  up  and  destroy  the 
Canaanites,  it  was  not  God  acting  absolutely  and  announcing  a  great  principle  of 
action,  but  it  was  God  acting  under  the  influence  of  the  presence  of  thoso  wicked 
Israelites;  not  investing  those  wars  with  or  evolving  them  from  His  divine  mind, 
but  permitting  them,  tolerating  them,  just  as  He  did  the  old  divorce  law  and  all 
the  wickedness  of  that  era. 

This  is  my  position  on  that  point.  But  when  Christ  came  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, there  He  announces  an  era  of  peace — everlasting  peace.  He  began  to  unfold 
Himself,  not  as  a  deity  restricted  by  the  presence  of  sinful  man,  but  as  a  deity  all 
glorious  in  his  own  right,  and  in  His  own  name  unfolding  the  everlasting  in  Jesus 
Christ.  I  hope  I  am  theologian  enough  to  understand  this,  and  hence  I  said  that 
young  men  are  coming  along  now  who  want  to  know  about  these  things  ;  and  they 
all  know  what  infidels  say.  They  all  know  what  Mr.  Froude  has  said  about  the 
109th  psalm,  and  hence  they  want  a  theory  to  be  handed  them  by  our  theological 
professors  and  our  clergymen  which  will  save  them  from  the  infidelity  of  Froude 
and  men  of  that  class.  Here,  the  prosecutor  saj-s,  I  indorse  Froude.  This  is 
simply  nonsense.  What  I  plead  for  is,  that  men  of  learning  like  Prof.  Patton, 
having  his  high  position,  shall  elaborate  some  theory  of  revelation  that  a  young 
man  can  take  to  his  heart — [applause  and  laughter] — and  not  say,  when  some  one 
asks  him,  "What  about  the  109th  psalm,"  "You  go  and  mind  your  business, 
young  man ;  that  is  inspired!"  [Laughter.]  That  is  what  I  call  the  theory  of 
admiration.  [Laughter.]  A  young  man  comes  to  him  and  says  :  "  What  about 
those  bloody  wars  .where  the  Israelites  went  out  and  destroyed  the  Canaanites, 
men,  women,  and  children?"  and  he  replies,  "Young  man,  the  bible  is  inspired. 
It  is  the  word  of  God."  Now  is  not  that  horrible?  That  makes  infidels — covers 
the  world  with  infidels.  And  yet,  there  is  an  explanation  of  all  the  difficulties  of 
the  Old  Testament,  which  it  is  the  duty  of  every  clergyman  having  the  vows  of 
Jesus  Christ  upon  him  to  unfold  to  the  young  men  of  this  age  and  crush  Froude  to 
powder  beneath  their  logic — not  their  malice. 

Then  I  observe,  too,  when  it  came  time  to  build  the  temple,  God  would  not 
let  David  build  the  temple  at  all,  because  he  has  made  his  hands  so  bloody  in  these 
wars.  It  seems  that  God  Himself  did  not  like  those  wars,  and  He  let  Solomon 
build  it,  because  He  wanted  a  man  of  peace,  whose  hands  were  not  stained 
with  blood. 

Now,  Mr.  Moderator  and  brethren,  I  come  to  the  point  where  I  shall  point 
out  to  you  the  ditTercnce  between  the  prosecutor's  theology  and  my  own,  in  some 
respects.  And  as  he  justly  quoted,  yesterday,  the  aphorism  from  Newman's 
Grammar  of  Assent,  that  there  are  times  when  "egotism  is  modesty."  I  shall 
repeat  it  here,  because  I  do  not  wish  to  pretend  that  anybody  holds  tbe  views  I 
shall  express  here  other  than  myself.  I  shall  not  pretend  that  they  are  accepted 
or  welcome  in  the  whole  presbytery.  They  may  be  a  weakness,  and  hence  to  stand 
by  them  alone  is  an  egotism  that  is  modesty.  The  remarks  about  to  be  oflTored  will 
explain  my  position  as  to  faith  and  infidelity  and  to  Old  Testament  inspiration  and 
to  the  call  for  the  ministry.  My  idea  is  this :  Prof.  Patton's  theology  all  proceeds 
from  God  as  a  simple  despot.  Mine  from  God  as  a  reasonable  being.  By  Prof. 
Patton's  theology,  I  do  not  mean  the  Presbyterian  theology,  or  the  Calvinistic 
theology,  it  is  infinitely  worse  than  both, — [laughter], — but  I  mean  his  own 
])ersonal  theology,  as  he  has  unfolded  it  since  he  came  to  this  city,  and,  latterly,  to 
this  trial.  One  of  the  eighteenth  century  philosophers  said  the  universe  is  an 
enormous  will  rushing  into  life.  The  theology  of  the  prosecutor  of  this  case  is 
nothing  but  the  picture  of  an  enormous  power  rushing  into  a  moral  world.  It  is 
power  ;  it  is  force.     You  dare  not  subject  his  Deity  to  any  question  whatever. 

As  Luther  said,  "  It  is  the  glory  of  human  faith  to  suppose  God  to  be  just  when 
he  damns  the  innocent."  So  the  theology  of  my  friend  is  one  that  docs  nothing 
but  look  down  to  earth  and  say,  "  God  I  Godl"  As  though  God  could  not  be 
thought  about,  or  prayed  to,  or  spoken  to.  But  who  this  God  is,  how  He  acts, 
upon  what  basis,  he  dares  not  inquire,  because  it  would  be  "rationalism"  if  he 
did — he  so  fears  rationalism.  When,  therefore,  a  young  man  comes  to  this  form  of 
theology  and  humbly  inquires  about  the  slaughter  of  the  Canaanites,  or  the  109th 
psalm,  and  says,  "How  shall  I  answer  Mr.  Froude  and  show  him  and  all  the  bold 
infidels  that  my  church  is  a  sensible,  reasonable  church?"  the  answer  is,  "  Go^ 


144       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

young  man,  and  tell  Froude  tliat  he  was  foreordained  to  be  damned  I  Go  1  and  if 
you  raise  such  an  inquiry  again  you  will  soon  be  in  a  similar  condition." 
[Laughter.]  , 

Now,  I  hope  I  do  his  theology  no  injustice — I  have  studied  it  well  and  thought 
over  it.  This  is  his  method  with  regard  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament. 
So  with  salvation  by  faith.  You  dare  not  ask  what  faith  is — whether  it  is  a 
natural  or  moral  excellence — that  has  induced  God  to  crown  it  with  such  glory  in 
the  New  Testament,  in  the  Christian  religion.  Any  inquiry  on  this  point,  is 
ratio?ialism.  It  is  your  business  to  believe,  and  there  terminates  your  inquiry. 
I  have  read  it  all  over,  and  read  it  long. 

Now,  on  the  opposite,  I  believe  a  theology  which  not  only  believes  that  God 
is  a  sovereign,  but  that  he  is  a  reasonable  sovereign,  and  that  beneath  all  his 
commands  there  will,  for  the  most  part,  be  some  beautiful  reason  visible,  ever  un- 
folding itself. 

Faith,  therefore,  is  clothed  with  judicial  worth,  because  it  possesses  such  an 
intrinsic  worth  in  the  mind  and  in  the  heart,  such  power  it  has  to  carry  the  mind 
forward,  to  cheer  up  the  heart  in  dark  hours,  and  to  transform  us  into  the  likeness 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Looking  out  and  seeing  this  faith  that  it  had  the  power  to 
take  the  whole  world  into  its  arms  and  all  remodel  it;  therefore  He  said,  "By 
faith  ye  shall  be  saved."  He  did  not  go  forth  as  a  tyrant  or  as  a  despot,  but  as  a 
reasonable  loving  father  of  us  all. 

God  has  pronounced  intemperance  to  be  a  curse.  No  drunkard  shall  inherit 
the  kingdom.  This  being  announced,  all  the  scientific  men  go  to  work  and  find  a 
reason  for  this  curse.  It  is  a  judicial  act,  and  hence  they  seek  a  reason.  They 
seek  it  in  the  mind,  in  the  blood,  in  the  burnt-up  coatings  of  the  stomach,  in  the 
inflamed  brain,  in  the  loss  of  money,  in  the  loss  of  mind,  in  the  ruin  of  the  wife 
and  the  children. 

Yes,  God  having  said,  "The  intemperate  man  shall  be  punished,"  men  look 
into  this  intemperance  to  find  the  reason  of  this  punishment.  But  when  God 
pronounces  the  woe  upon  the  infidel,  you  must  not  inquire  about  the  natural  drift 
of  this  infidelity.     That  is  rationalism  I 

You  dare  not  ask  whether  it  wages  any  war  in  the  soul  such  as  intemperance 
does  in  the  body ;  whether  it  closes  the  gate  of  moral  sense  and  shuts  out  a  world 
from  the  heart ;  whether  it  shuts  out  Christ  and  heaven  from  the  soul ;  whether  it 
be  a  natural  damnation  like  intemperance  as  well  as  a  judicial  one.  Oh  !  no.  If 
you  do  this,  you  will  be  arraigned  before  the  Presbytery  for  not  regarding  your 
ordination  vows. 

Well,  brethren,  if  my  ordination  vows  impose  upon  me  to  live  a  life  of  ignor- 
ance and  stupidity,  destitute  of  all  inquiry,  the  sooner  you  relieve  me  of  these 
ordination  vows  the  better.     ["Amen  1"  and  applause.] 

The  fact  that  intemperance  injures  men  by  God's  decree  does  not  debar  me 
from  looking  into  the  natural  operation  of  that  intemperance  ;  and  the  fact  that 
God  saves  a  soul  by  faith,  and  condemns  a  soul  for  infidelity,  does  not  debar  me 
from  looking  into  the  natural  quality  of  that  belief  and  that  unbelief.  But, 
according  to  the  theology  of  the  prosecutor,  infidelity  may  be  a  virtue,  for  all  I 
know,  and  faith  may  be  a  vice.  All  he  knows  is  that  God  forbade  the  one  and 
commanded  the  other.  And  there  he  stops.  His  theology  alwaj'^s  terminates  with 
the  fact.  It  dare  not  ever  ask  a  single  question.  It  is  just,  "Believe  and  be  saved. 
Believe  not  and  be  damned."  That  is  all  there  is  of  it.  Hence,  I  say  his  God  has 
marched  right  through  his  theology ;  has  no  sweet  reasonableness,  but  is  only  an 
enormous  will  rushing  out  like  a  hurricane  to  the  fields  of  His  own  dear  children, 
trampling  alike  over  their  cradle  and  their  grave. 

Now  I  am  as  firm  a  believer  in  salvation  by  faith  as  the  prosecutor  in  this 
case,  only  his  faith  is  but  a  despotic  command  from  the  Almighty.  Mine,  I  feel, 
is  from  a  God,  all-wise,  unfolding  His  wisdom  to  His  children.  Hence  my  faith  ia 
one  clothed  not  only  with  good  works,  but  clothed  with  sense.     [Applause.] 

This  dreadful  hostility  to  reason  has  robbed  Prof.  Patton  of  almost  the  entire 
world,  apart  from  his  little  narrow  church  world. 

To  say  that  man  was  a  religious  being  before  Christianity,  and  that  religion 
was  not  forced  upon  man  as  it  might  be  forced  upon  the  brute  world  ;  that  it  was 
demanded  by  man's  nature,  and  was  a  flower  that  came  naturally  right  up  out  of 
his  heart,  is  something  that  greatly  angers  him.  Keligion  is  something  born  right 
out  of  the  heart  because  man  saw  before  him  a  heaven  to  be  gained  and  a  hell  to 
be  shunned.     He  was  a  moral  creature.     Prof.  Patton,  in  his  own  inaugural,  says 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   TEE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       145 

a  man  is  religious  at  bottom.  He  ought  to  have  made  the  sentence  end  in 
"religious"  and  put  the  "at  bottom"  in  the  beginning.  But  that  is  a  small  matter. 
[Laughter.] 

He  says  there  is  no  fitness,  that  we  know  of,  naturally,  between  the  soul  and 
Christianity  simply  ;  God  came  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  planted  Christianity 
because  He  wanted  to.  The  time  had  come  for  doing  it.  There  was  nothing  in 
man  to  suggest  any  such  kindness.  There  was  nothing  in  the  human  family  to 
render  natural  such  a  gift  from  God.  The  gift  of  Christianity  to  the  world  was 
just  like  giving  speech  to  a  corpse,  or  giving  wings  to  a  clod,  a  pure  act  of  omni- 
potence. Thus,  in  the  theology  of  our  friend,  on  the  opposite,  you  will  perceive 
nothing  but  an  enormous  will  that  explains  nothing.  It  is  a  great  foreordaining 
power,  destitute  alike  of  intelligence  and  humanity. 

By  pondering  this  over,  you  will  find  what  the  new  school  theology  is.  And 
furthermore,  it  would  seem  that  this  enormous  will  does  not  touch  the  world 
anywhere  between  Adam  and  Christ — anywhere,  scarcely  :  for  when  I  attenjpted 
to  show  that  God  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  ministry  when  He  made 
man,  and  that,  as  He  set  Moses  apart  for  a  law-giver,  and  Aaron  apart  for  a 
white-robed  priest,  and  David  apart  for  a  king,  and  Daniel  apart  to  be  a  prophet, 
and  thus,  in  the  deeply  religious  nature  of  His  children  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  ministry  for  that  differentiation  of  man  which  Christ  afterward  so 
reinforced  with  the  truth  of  His  gospel  and  the  power  of  His  cross,  our  prosecutor 
absolutely  arraigns  me  and  says  the  ministry  began  at  year  one  Anno  Domini,  and 
refers  me  to  his  Confession  of  faith. 

The  Christian  ministry,  or  the  ministry,  began  at  the  advent.  That  is,  in  his 
theology,  after  4,000  years  had  passed — after  tens  of  thousands  of  ministers  of 
God's  own  religion  had  ministered  at  the  altars,  from  Abel  to  Samuel,  and  from 
Samuel  to  the  very  day  of  Christ.  Then  God  came  and  established  the  ministry, 
not  on  account  of  any  need  of  his  church  or  of  mankind ;  not  on  account  of  any 
desirableness  in  the  ofiice  that  there  should  be  a  division  of  labor ;  not  for  any 
reason  whatever,  visible  or  invisible,  but  just  because  this  great  Being,  which  the 
prosecutor  supposes  to  be  God,  so  desired — God  so  wanted  it.  That  is  all.  God  so 
compassed  the  situation,  and  so  concluded  and  so  ordained. 

This  is  the  theology  that  makes  infidels.  Thus  God  is  separated  from  all  those 
four  thousand  years  between  Christ  and  Adam,  and  is  waked  up,  at  last,  from  a 
long  neglect,  and  concludes  to  found  a  religious  ministry. 

Now,  although  the  prosecutor  made  the  accused  out  to  be  an  infidel,  a  Brahmin, 
and  a  evolutionist,  and  a  Sabellian,  and  a  Unitarian,  yet  the  accused,  with  all 
these  faults  upon  him,  can  show  to  this  court  a  bettor  view  of  Providence,  a  more 
universal,  a  more  careful  and  delightful  Heavenly  Father  than  the  prosecutor  can 
present. 

The  God  of  my  friend  seems  only  to  come  to  this  world  once  in  a  while,  and 
then  as  a  clap  of  thunder  strikes  it,  and  then  withdraws  again  for  a  thousand 
years.     [Laughter]. 

His  Creator  came  suddenly,  and  laid  down  Christianity  as  though  in  a  night. 
He  had  not  been  preparing  for  it  at  all  in  those  four  thousand  years.  He  suddenly 
invented  the  ministry  also,  and  introduced  it  for  the  first  time  at  the  advent  of 
the  Saviour,  "See  Confession  of  Faith,"  he  says  [laughter]  whereas  my  Providence 
has  been  holding  and  building  up  that  ministry  for  six  thousand  years,  right  along, 
without  any  intermission — no  rest.  When  he  gave  man  a  religious  nature,  when 
he  placed  heaven  and  hell  before  him,  and  when  he  called  the  sons  of  Levi  to  the 
altar  and  decorated  them  in  white,  spotless  robes,  this  Providence,  which  I  believe 
in,  has  been  all  along,  from  the  earliest  morning  of  earth,  right  close  by  His  people- 
building  up  this  holy  ministry,  in  Whose  name  we  came  here  to-day. 

And  now,  since  in  our  century  the  prosecutor  holds  to  the  idea  of  an  imperfect 
Providence,  for  the  most  part  coming  to  His  church  alone.    [Laughter.] 

His  own  witnesses  here,  Mr.  Goudy  and  Mr.  Miller,  join  with  him  in  separa- 
ting God  from  such  beings  as  Lincoln  and  Washington,  and  indeed  from  all  the 
human  marching  host,  and  in  employing  God  only  in  looking  up  young  men  for 
theological  seminaries  in  our  church  [laughter  and  applause]  thus  giving  us  the 
world  of  the  atheist,  except  so  far  as  the  church  is  concerned.  But  in  the  the- 
ology of  our  friend,  if  theology  that  can  be  called  which  has  everything  in  it  except 
God,  the  providence  of  the  Almighty  must  undergo  a  more  painful  limitation.  I 
do  not  mean  he  is  conscious  of  this,  I  am  speaking  only  of  his  theology. 

Now,  we  know  this :    That  the  prosecutor  will  deny  that  God  could  call  any 


146       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

heterodos  clergyman  to  the  pulpit.  The  advantage  of  having  the  Deity  to  super- 
intend this  work  must  lie  in  his  supreme  advantages  for  knowing  the  true  the- 
ology and  the  pure  heart.  Hence,  we  cannot  suppose  God  calls  a  heterodox  minister 
to  the  pulpit.  Hence  all  heterodox  clergymen  must  be  set  aside  from  the  care  of 
God's  special  providence.  If  in  the  ministry,  they  must  come  in  only  as  Sumner 
came  to  his  office,  or  Wilberforce  to  his. 

So  the  Professor  has  limited  God's  special  providence  still  more  yet,  to  only 
the  orthodox  clergy  ;  and  when  he  proved  not  long  ago,  in  his  paper,  that  he  that 
rejects  infant  baptism,  as  not  orthodox,  you  see  how  he  is  limiting  the  care  of 
God  in  this  direction.  And  thus  we  must  cast  away  from  God's  special  love  and 
call  all  those  who  hold  not  our  standards. 

And  then,  furthermore,  he  excludes  all  elders  as  having  never  been  called  to 
this  holy  work  ;  excluding  such  men  as  Geo.  H.  Stewart,  and  J.  V.  Farwell;  and 
all  women  such  as  Miss  Smiley — [laughter] — and  all  revivalists  such  as  Moody, 
for  I  believe  he  was  not  an  ordained  minister.  And  thus  we  have  him  narrowing 
down  the  providence  of  God,  until  we  find,  in  looking  around  here  and  there  that 
it  is  caring  for  a  few  clergymen  left  in  Zion's  great  church.  My  friends,  when  I 
look  upon  such  men  as  Sumner  and  Burke  and  William  "Wirt  and  Wilberforce, 
and  feel  that  they  came  into  being  only  by  an  ordinary  providence  or  else  through 
God's  neglect,  because  those  elders  did  not  know  whether  Mr,  Lincoln  was  called 
or  not, — he  came,  perhaps,  by  God's  neglect, — and  when  I  look  upon  some  cler- 
gyman,"and  am  told  that  these  clergymen  came  by  some  miraculous  method,  let 
us  pray  God  that  he  may  return  to  an  ordinary  providence  hereafter,  [Long  con- 
tinued laughter  and  applause.] 

Now,  my  brethren,  I  have  but  two  remarks  to  make,  and  one  is  this :  The 
prosecutor  called  your  attention  to  Penelope,  who  in  the  day-time  wove  her  woof 
and  in  the  night-time  unraveled  it.  I  thank  him  for  thus  recalling  this,  for  it  has 
been  several  years  since  I  have  read  the  Odyssey.  He  is  the  greatest  Penelope  of 
all  in  this  matter,  for  whereas,  my  brethren,  on  one  day  he  proved  to  you,  in  a 
whole  day's  long  argument,  that  I  did  not  believe  in  hell,  he  yesterday  showed 
you  that  I  held  a  religion  without  hope — a  religion  of  good  works,  he  said.  Where 
can  you  find  hope  in  that.  Now  when  you  come  to  condemn  me  I  don't  want 
you  to  condemn  me  for  holding  both  a  religion  without  hell  and  without 
hope.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Take  one  or  the  other.  Again  he  proved  to 
you,  by  a  long  argument,  that  a  Sabellian  is  a  man  who  fully  identifies  Jesus 
Christ  with  God.  The  truth  is  a  Sabellian  is,  par  excellence,  a  believer  in  the 
deity  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  theology  Sabellian,  Jesus  Christ  is  nothing  else  than 
the  Great  Father,  having  for  the  moment  become  the  Mediator,  and  for  the 
moment  having  become  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  the  theory  of  Sabellius  is  the 
theory  above  all  others  that  makes  Jesus  Christ  the  very  God.  Having  toiled  all 
that  day  to  show  that  I  was  a  Sabellian,  he  toiled  all  the  next  day  to  show  that  I 
•was  a  Unitarian — [laughter] — that  religion  which  of  all  others  separates  Jesus 
Christ  from  God. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  I  want  you  when  you  come  to  make  up  your  verdict, 
not  to  make  me  both  of  these  characters.  [Laughter.]  I  could  bear  it  to  be 
either,  perhaps,  but  I  could  not  bear  to  be  both.     [Applause.] 

MR.  NOYES  arose  and  took  up  his  argument  again,  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Moderator:  When  I  felt  compelled  to  ask  on  yesterday  afternoon  for 
an  adjournment,  feeling  unable  to  proceed  farther  with  my  remarks,  it  will,  per- 
haps, be  remembered  that  I  had  reached  and  spoken  somewhat  briefly  upon  the 
third  specification  in  this  indictment.  Without  undertaking  this  afternoon  to  go 
through  these  in  their  order,  I  shall  take  occasion  to  ask  your  attention,  first  in 
the  remarks  which  may  be  able  to  ofi'er  to  the  fifth  specification,  which  asserts 
that  the  defendant  in  this  case  omits  to  preach  the  doctrines  commonly  known  as 
evangelical.     I  will  read  the  specification  : 

Being  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  preaching  regularly  to  the 
Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  cityj  he  has  omitted  to  preach  in  his  sermons 
the  doctrines  commonly  known  as  evangelical — that  is  to  say,  in  particular,  he 
omits  to  preach  or  teach  one  or  more  of  the  doctrines  indicated  in  the  following 
statements  of  Scripture,  namely  :  That  Christ  is  a  "propitiation  for  our  sins,"  that 
we  have  "redemption  through  His  blood,"  that  we  are  "justified  by  faith,"  that 
"there  is  no  other  na.me  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  we  may  be 
saved."     That  Jesus  is  "equal  with  God,"  and  is  "God  manifest  in  the  flesh?" 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       147 

that  "all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God."     and  that  "the  wicked  shall 
go  away  into  everlasting  punishment." 

To  say  that  a  minister  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  omits  to  preach  or  teach 
the  doctrines  that  are  set  forth  in  this  specification  is,  you  will  agree,  to  bring  a 
very  serious  accusation  against  him.  And  if  I  supposed  that  the  defendant  in  this 
case  were  guilty  of  the  thing  alleged  in  this  specification,  I  certainly  should  not  be 
here  to-day  to  undertake  to  plead  his  case,  to  correct  grave  mistakes  and  mis- 
representations concerning  his  views.  It  is  only  because  I  believe,  and  know,  and 
can  prove,  that  the  doctrines  which  are  here  set  forth  in  scriptural  phrases  are 
preached  and  taught  by  him,  that  I  am  willing  not  only,  but  count  it  a  privilege 
and  honor,  to  stand  here  and  plead  his  case  before  you. 

This  specification,  as  you  have  already  heard,  asserts  that  the  defendant  omits 
to  preach  these  doctrines.  If  we  are  to  understand  by  this  that  he  omits,  that  he 
fails  to  preach  these  doctrines  by  many  of  making  set  and  formal  discourses  upon 
each  of  them,  we  readily  admit  that  this  is  true,  so  far  as  concerns  the  documentary 
evidence  which  is  before  this  court.  But  if  the  specification  means  that  Professor 
Swing  has  not  interwoven  all  these  subjects  into  his  sermons,  and  taught  the  truth 
concerning  them,  then  the  charge  is  utterly  denied.  And  by  the  testimony  which 
has  already  been  spread  out  before  this  court  from  the  lips  of  living  witnesses,  that 
charge  was  proven  to  be  baseless ;  and  as  I  shall  presently  be  able  to  show,  can  be 
abundantly  proven  to  be  baseless,  from  the  very  sermons  which  have  been  read  in 
your  hearing  here,  and  by  which  it  has  been  attempted  to  prove  that  he  does  not 
preach  these  doctrines. 

The  prosecutor,  in  all  his  arguments,  seems  to  have  gone  upon  the  supposition 
that  Professor  Swing's  language  is  the  language  of  heresy — unless  we  grant  him 
the  benefit  of  the  assumption  that  he  is  a  Presbyterian.  Well,  I  think  the  most  of 
us ;  the  most  of  the  members  of  this  court,  will  be  ready  at  the  outset  to  grant  him 
the  poor  benefit  of  such  an  assumption,  namely,  that  he  is  a  Presbyterian ;  and 
that  that  assumption  will  be  permitted  to  stand  until  it  is  clearly  demonstrated 
that  it  is  not  true.     Surely,  the  respondent  has  a  right  to  this  assumption. 

One  of  the  prosecutor's  arguments  would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  had  perceived 
the  weakness  of  his  case.  He  made  at  the  outset  the  term  "evangelical"  a  test 
word.  He  assumes,  in  specification  seventeen,  that  the  evangelical  sense  of  terms 
is  the  standard  by  which  to  judge  the  language  of  the  defendant  in  this  case;  the 
game  thing  is  assumed  also  in  specifications  four  and  five.  Let  me  read  speci- 
fication seventeen : 

In  the  sermons  aforesaid,  he  employes  the  words  used  to  indicate  the  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  in  an  unscriptural  sense,  and  in  sense  different  from  that  in  which 
they  are  used  by  the  evangelical  churches  in  general,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  particular;  that  is  to  say,  that  he  so  uses  such  words  as  "regeneration," 
"conversion,"  "repentance,"  "Divine,"  "justification,"  "  new  heart,"  "salva- 
tion,"  "Saviour." 

Without  stopping  to  put  such  a  specification  as  this  on  grounds  which  were  set 
forth  in  the  remarks  that  I  was  enabled  to  make  here  yesterday,  I  ask  you  to 
consider  how  much  basis  there  is  for  making  such  assertions  as  are  put  forth 
concerning  the  defendant.  I  ask  you  notice,  in  reading  this  specification,  and 
specifications  like  to  this  which  may  be  found  in  this  indictment,  that  the  defendant 
meets  the  prosecutor  on  his  own  ground,  as  you  will  find  his  language  set  forth  in 
the  new  volume  of  sermons,  pages  138  and  139. 

A  Member — What  is  the  sermon  ? 

It  is  the  declaration  of  the  defendant  at  the  opening  of  this  case  before  the 
Presbytery.     He  says : 

1  admit  the  extracts  from  sermons  and  writings,  but  I  would  ask  the  Presby- 
tery to  consider  the  entire  essays  [which  we  proposed  to  do] — the  whole  of  the 
discourses  from  which  the  extracts  are  made. 

I  own  myself  to  be  what,  before  the  late  union,  was  styled  a  new-school 
Presbyterian  ;  and  deny  myself  to  have  come  into  conflict  with  any  of  the  evan- 
gelical Calvinistic  doctrines  of  the  denomination  with  which  I  am  connected  ;  and 
I  beg  permission  to  enter,  as  a  part  of  my  plea,  the  following  statements,  etc. 

Let  me  in  this  connection,  while  I  am  reading  from  this  declaration,  call  your 
attention  to  what  is  here  said  with  reference  to  a  charge  that  has  been  continually 
made  against  him  in  the  course  of  the  prosecutor's  argument,  that  he  was  a 
Unitarian. 

The  names  of  Channing  and  Elliott  and  Huntington  and  Peahody,  in  the 


148       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND'  DEFENSE. 

pulpits  of  that  sect,  and  the  Christ-like  lives  of  thousands  in  the  congregations  of 
that  denomination,  utterly  exclude  from  my  mind  and  my  heart  the  most  remote 
idea  that  in  showing  that  brotherhood  any  kindness  I  am  offering  indirect  approval 
to  persons  outside  the  pale  of  the  Christian  religion  and  hope.  The  idea  that  these 
brethren  are  doomed  to  wrath  beyond  the  tomb,  I  wholly  repudiate.  It  is,  indeed, 
my  conviction  that  they  do  not  hold  as  correct  a  version  of  the  gospel  as  that 
announced  by  the  Evangelical  Alliance  a  few  years  ago,  yet  I  am  just  as  certain 
that  the  blessed  Lord  does  not  bestow  His  forgiveness  and  grace  upon  the  mind 
that  possesses  the  most  accurate  information,  but  upon  the  heart  that  loves  and 
trusts  Him.  It  is  possible  that  the  venerable  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Princeton,  holds  a 
more  truthful  view  of  Jesus  than  may  be  held  by  the  distinguished  Peabody,  who 
has  just  lectured  from  his  Unitarian  standpoint  before  the  Calvinists  in  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  but  we  can  point  to  nothing  in  the  Bible  that  would  indicate 
that  heaven  is  to  be  given  to  only  the  one  of  these  two  giants  who  may  possess  a 
clearer  apprehension  of  the  truth.  It  may  be  assumed  that  God  grants  the  world 
salvation  only  on  account  of  the  expiatory  atonement  made  by  Kedeemer,  but  that 
God  will  grant  this  salvation  to  only  those  who  fully  apprehend  this  fact  in  an 
idea  not  to  be  entertained  for  an  infant,  for  this  would  give  heaven  only  to  philo- 
sophers, and,  indeed,  only  to  those  of  this  small  class  who  shall  have  made  no 
intellectual  mistake.  Looking  upon  the  multitudes  who  need  this  salvation,  and 
seeing  that  they  are  composed  of  men,  women,  and  children  who  know  nothing  of 
the  distinctions  of  formal  theology,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  paradise  is  not  to 
be  a  reward  of  scholarship,  but  of  a  loving,  obedient  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

That,  it  would  seem,  ought  to  satisfy  the  mind  of  the  prosecutor  upon  that 
point.  But  it  does  not  satisfy  him,  for,  seeing  that  his  original  demand  is  met,  he 
shifts  his  ground,  changes  his  test,  and  throws  the  evangelical  sense  entirely  aside. 
Then  he  attempts  to  show  that  the  evangelical  terms  employed  by  the  respondent 
are  also  used  by  Unitarians,  Universalists,  and  Arminians — used  by  them  when 
they  speak  with  reference  to  the  same  subjects;  and  from  this  he  leaps  to  the 
conclusion  that  therefore  (you  see  the  connection)  Professor  Swing  is  an  Unitarian  1 
In  this  way  he  could  make  the  accused  not  an  Unitarian  only,  but  an  Universal- 
ist,  a  Eoman,  an  Arminian,  a  moral  theorist,  and  whatever  else  one  may  mean 
who  is  so  unfortunate  as  to  use  evangelical  phrases.  By  this  method  he  might 
with  perfect  propriety  classify  the  inspired  writers  with  heretics ;  by  this  method, 
who  of  all  the  ministers  of  this  body,  or  of  any  other  Presbytery  in  the  church  to 
which  we  belong — who  of  them  all  could  stand? 

But  after  he  has  resumed  his  own  test —  namely,  that  of  the  evangelical  sense, 
proposed  by  himself  in  the  charges  which  he  has  drawn  and  which  he  has  presented 
here,  and  on  which  the  defendant  is  arraigned — after  he  has  removed  this  test, 
because  it  would  seem  that  he  himself  saw  that  he  had  lost  his  case  by  it,  what 
does  he  next  do  ?  "What  is  the  next  great  feat  in  logic  which  we  are  called  upon 
to  witness  and  admire  ?  He  assumes  that  the  accused  must  use  certain  technical 
terms  manufactured  especially  by  him,  such  as  "the  deity  of  Christ,"  "Christ  is 
God" — terms  which  are  not  in  the  Bible,  which  are  not  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  which  are  rarely  used,  as  I  venture  to  say,  by  the  ministers  of  this  body.  If 
the  accused  speaks  of  inspiration,  of  regeneration,  of  a  new  heart  and  life — these 
■will  not  serve  this  purpose — not  even  when  the  accused  declares,  as  he  has  distinctly 
done  before  this  body,  that  he  uses  these  good  old  Bible  terms  in  an  evangelical 
sense. 

In  our  innocence  we  have  supposed  that  Bible  preaching  was  gospel  preaching; 
but  evidently  it  is  not  so,  according  to  the  arguments  that  we  have  heard  in  this 
court.  It  is  heretical,  it  is  Unitarianism,  if  these  phrases  which  the  prosecutor 
insists  shall  be  the  test  words  by  which  to  ascertain  the  orthodoxy  or  the  heterodoxy 
of  a  Presbyterian  minister — he  insists  upon  these  terms,  and  these  terms  are  not 
found  in  the  Bible — and  so  that  is  an  Unitarian  book.  Well  may  the  Unitarians 
thank  the  prosecutor  for  coming  to  their  help  in  his  plea  that  they  use  evangelical 
terms.  Now,  if  they  will  only  adopt  Professor  Patton's  new  terms,  as  some  of 
them  would  have  no  hesitation  or  difficulty  in  doing,  they  might  claim  him  as  in 
accord  with  them.  How  would  this  logic  sound  :  "Professor  Patton  speaks  of  the 
deity  of  Christ ;  Sabellians  admit  the  deity  of  Christ;  therefore  Professor  Patton  is 
a  Sabellian."  [Laughter.]  This  is  the  logic — precisely  this — which  he  applies  to 
Professor  Swing.  Again,  the  prosecutor  comments  on  certain  language  of  the 
respondent  as  if  he  understood  it  perfectly,  without  any  possibility  of  mistake  or 
error.    He  can  see  heresy  in  it.    There  is  no  doubt  in  his  mind  but  it  is  there ; 


ARGUMENTS  FOR    TEE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       149 

but  still,  conscious  that  he  is  torturing  that  language,  and  perhaps  having  his  pity 
awakened  as  he  sees  how  it  writhes  in  his  logical  machine,  and  anticipating  the 
evangelical  sense  which  we  may  put  upon  it,  he  takes  another  turn  ;  he  appears 
before  this  tody  in  the  character  of  one  who  can  understand  this  language.  Now, 
I  submit  that  the  prosecutor  does  not  understand  certain  language  used  by  the 
defendant  does  not  prove  that  his  regular  hearers  do  not  understand  him.  Who 
are  the  most  likely  to  understand  him.  Who  are  the  best  interpreters  of  his 
words,  as  they  are  spoken  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  ?  Certainly  we  ought  to  agree 
with  his  regular  hearers.  His  elders,  who  have  been  before  you  here,  and  upon  the 
witness  stand  have  testified  one  and  all,  and  consistently,  to  the  same  evangelical 
preaching  which  they  have  heard  from  week  to  week,  and  from  month  to  month, 
and  from  year  to  year,  during  all  the  seven  years  past.  And  these  were  men 
whose  theological  knowledge,  as  you  will  all  remember,  drew  from  the  prosecutor 
a  compliment.  Let  us  ask,  What  it  his  neit  display  of  art  ?  To  compliment  them 
in  his  argument  ?  By  no  means  ;  rather  to  discredit  their  testimony,  and  to 
pronounce  it  worthless,  on  two  grounds :  one,  that  they  are  untrained  in  the 
discussions  of  theology,  and  the  other,  that  they  are  prejudiced — that  they  have  a 
personal  interest  in  this  prosecution,  and  so  deep  a  personal  interest  in  it  as  to 
make  them  incompetent  witnesses.  Hence,  he  would  make  it  appear  to  this  body 
that  the  pastor  of  these  elders  had  beguiled  them  with  his  unevangelical  and 
Biblical  language.  O,  what  is  our  Bible  to  be  worth  after  this  ?  A  pious-hearted 
man  reads  in  his  Bible  words  such  as  those  embodied  in  the  fifth  specification, 
or  such  as  these:  "The  Son  of  Man  is  Lord  of  the  Sabbath;"  "Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world  to  tiave  sinners;"  "We  believe  and  are  sure  that  thou  art  Christ, 
the  son  of  the  Living  God,"  and  then  those  of  this  argument  of  the  prosecutor, 
and  says,  "What  can  all  this  mean?  Unitarians  and  Sabellians  use  just  this 
evangelical  language,  and  therefore  this  must  be — there  is  no  escape  from  the 
conclusion — this  must  be  an  heretical  book." 

Having  followed,  in  this  way,  and  taken  up  some  of  the  prominent  points  that 
were  put  before  you  in  the  argument  of  the  prosecutor ;  having  recalled  your 
attention  to  some  of  the  leading  moves,  if  I  may  so  speak  of  them,  which  he  took 
in  the  conduct  of  that  argument,  it  would  seem  a  fair  inference  from  all  this,  that 
he  must  have  felt  hard  pressed  by  the  evidence  which  was  given  by  the  elders,  or 
he  would  never  have  so  manipulated  the  term  "evangelical."  And  this  court  will 
readily  detect  the  art  of  the  magician  in  whose  successful  hands  not  only  the 
sermons  of  our  preacher,  but  the  very  Bible,  would»lose  their  meaning  and  their 
power  to  save  souls. 

Let  me  ask  you  to  give  attention  to  some  elements  which  will  disprove  the 
charges  of  perversion — of  omission  and  perversion. 

Upon  the  subject  of  regeneration,  let  me  ask  your  attention  to  a  passage  found 
in  the  volume  of  sermons  last  published.  It  is  at  page  47,  and  is  as  follows  :  "It  is 
not  worth  while,  therefore,  to  quarrel  about  the  Bible,  when  it  says  :  'I  was  born 
in  iniquity,'  'The  heart  is  deceitful,'  'The  heart  is  desperately  wicked,'  and  'Man 
must  be  born  again.'  "  The  conspicuousness  of  Christ,  of  Paul,  of  Penn,  of  the 
great  Elliott  among  the  Indians,  shows  that  the  Bible  is  only  a  picture  of  human 
life,  and  that  men  do  need  to  be  born  again.  You  may  quarrel  with  theologians 
if  you  wish,  who  have  taken  Bible  texts  into  their  laboratories,  and  have  re-appeared 
after  long  stirring  of  the  crucible,  having  in  their  hands  some  strange  compound 
of  mysterious  color  and  questionable  use ;  but  with  the  plain  Bible — with  its 
words,  'ye  must  be  born  again' — let  us  have  no  debate." 

You  will  readily  understand  in  advance  the  answer  which  the  prosecutor  will 
make  to  this  language — that  it  was  used  in  a  unitarian,  or  an  evasive,  or  a  dis- 
ingonious  or  dishonest  sense.     Let  us  attend,  however,  to  the  words  themselves : 

"It  was  the  efi"ort  of  the  old  chemists  to  turn  all  things  into  gold,  but  the  old 
theologians  seemed  to  have  possessed  the  faculty  of  changing  gold  into  all  things 
else ;  and  taking  a  pure,  priceless  truth  from  the  Bible,  were  wont,  unconscious  of 
its  worth,  to  join  it  to  their  amalgam  and  then  emerge  with  a  poor  oreido — their 
very  faces  meanwhile  crying  out  the  old  "Eureka."  With  these  we  may  dispute, 
but  as  for  the  simple  words  of  the  Bible,  they  are  the  world's  facts.  They  are  the 
mirror  which  reflects  back  to  us  nothing  but  our  face,  with  no  charm  nor  deformity 
left  out.  Those  words  arc  deeply  writtim  on  all  generations,  and  their  meaning  is 
only  too  vivid.  It  makes  the  heart  and  the  head  to  ache.  Let  us  confess  that  one 
of  the  most  prominent  facts  of  society  is  its  moral  weakness,  its  depravity.  It 
ought  to  be  born  again." 


150      ARGUMENTS  FOR  THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

At  page  48  he  says : 

"This  sentiment  is  not  true  to  the  letter,  but  it  shows  what  Christ  meant, 
when  he  said :  'Jesus  is  to  be  born  again.'  He  meant  that  the  soul  must  be  hurled 
into  being  a  second  time.  Its  first  life  was  a  failure ;  it  ought  to  be  reborn,  so  that 
a  new  genius,  a  new  drift  might  be  possible."  *  *  *  There  are  several 
Christian  sects  which  do  not  sufficiently  magnify  this  idea  of  conversion,  or  new 
life.  They  believe  in  it,  but  do  not  make  it  the  great  central  thought  of  their 
teaching.  With  the  Methodists,  the  Presbyterians  and  the  kindred  schools  the 
first  efibrt  is  to  help  to  convert  men,  and  hence  their  great  question  to  the  can- 
didate for  membership  is,  "Do  you  feel  that  you  have  undergone  a  change  of 
heart  ?  Do  you  hate  sin,  do  you  love  holiness?"  And  persons  enter  the  Church 
or  remain  out,  according  to  the  responses  to  these  inquiries.  It  matters  not  if  some 
assert  a  change  who  have  really  met  with  none,  and  if  some  assert  a  falsehood 
knowingly.  The  questions  are  exactly  in  the  line  of  the  world's  reform;  they  are 
the  great  questions  to  be  asked.  Hence,  the  religion  that  most  particularly  asks 
them,  and  most  longingly  seeks  affirmative  answers,  will  always  secure  better 
results  than  a  church  that  passes  them  by  in  silence,  and  answer  that  all  is  well  in 
the  soul."  At  page  49,  he  said :  "  The  perpetual  effort  to  build  up  a  new  spiritual 
life,  the  unchanging  conviction  that  the  soul  needs  a  profound  reform  now,  and 
the  accompanying  belief  that  such  a  new  drift  of  being  may  be  found  by  the  heart, 
has  all  the  advantage  to  be  found  in  all  direct  efibrt  toward  result.  The  mere 
Kationalist  will  assure  you  that  the  quantity  of  education  or  wealth  in  a  land  will 
be  as  the  quantity  of  zeal,  and  longing,  and  will-power  in  those  two  directions." 

At  page  21  there  are  the  following  passages :  "  Christianity  silently  points  to 
Jesus  Christ ;  pass  it  not  by.  O,  may  this  generation,  while  it  is  passing  along, 
number  among  its  transformations  the  transformation  of  your  hearts  into  the 
image  of  the  Saviour,  that  when,  after  a  few  years,  it  shall  have  strewn  all  your 
bodies  like  autumn  leaves  upon  the  earth,  it  may  waft  your  spirits,  redeemed  and 
sanctified,  back  to  your  Maker." 

The  counsel  then  quoted  passages  from  the  sermons  in  respect  to  "Salvation 
by  Christ"  and  "The  Person  of  Christ."  He  cited  from  "Salvation  and  Morality," 
pages  102  and  104 ;  also  from  the  sermons  on  pages  107,  179,  239  and  240,  all  of 
which  were  strongly  in  support  of  defendant's  position. 

At  5  o'clock  an  adjournment  was  taken  until  Saturday  morning. 

SATUEDAT,  MAY  17th. 

Presbytery  opened  at  9:30  o'clock  this  morning,  in  a  very  crowded  condition 
After  very  few  preliminaries, 

MK.  NOTES 

took  the  floor,  and  proceeded  with  his  argument,  as  follows : 

Mr.  Modbrator:  No  one  regrets  more  than  I  do  that  the  course  of  the 
prosecutor  in  his  argument  has  imposed  upon  me  the  necessity  of  taking  far  more 
of  your  time  than  I  presumed  it  would  be  necessary  to  take,  before  the  case  was 
taken  up  for  argument.  Not  that  the  arguments  which  he  presented  were  of  a 
character  that  could  not  be  overthrown,  but  simply  for  the  reason  that  the  argu- 
ments were  deftly  inserted  in  the  evidence;  and  that  you  were  asked  to  adjudicate 
upon  this  case  upon  the  argument,  and  not  upon  the  evidence.  And  so  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  consume  a  very  considerable  portion  of  time  still  to  come  in  reading 
from  the  documentary  evidence.  I  must  be  permitted  also,  before  proceeding  to 
this  presentation,  to  call  attention  to  a  fact  (which  certainly  could  not  have  escaped 
any  member  of  this  court),  that  the  manner  in  which  the  documentary  evidence 
was  read  by  the  prosecutor  was  such  as  in  itself  to  cast  ridicule  upon  it.  The 
contrast  was  very  striking  and  noticeable  between  the  dignified  and  respectful 
manner  in  which  he  read,  for  instance,  from  James  Freeman  Clarke,  and  the 
contemptuous  and  scornful  manner  in  which  he  read  from  the  sermons  of 
Professor  Swing.  And  I  could  not  but  be  reminded  of  a  story  in  that  connection 
which  I  heard  long  ago,  and  which  goes  to  show  how  the  whole  force  of 
any  passage  may  be  changed  by  mere  infiection  or  emphasis.  In  the  good  old 
colonial  times  of  Massachusetts,  it  is  said  that  a  certain  minister  of  the  gospel 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       151 

had  an  unspeakable  contempt  for  the  private  and  official  character  of  the  then 
acting  governor  of  the  common  wealth.  It  was  a  custom  then,  (and  Brother 
Kittredge  can  say  whether  it  is  not  now),  for  thanksgiving  proclamations  to  be 
read  from  the  pulpit.  And  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Governors  to  draw  up  these 
proclamations  in  due  form,  and  after  signing  their  names  as  witness  to  the 
document,  would  add  the  words,  "God  sa,ve  the  commonwealth."  This  minister, 
determined  to  have  an  expression  of  his  contempt  for  the  Governor  (whoso  name 
escapes  me,  but  whom  we  will  call,  familiarly,  John  Smith),  read  the  proclamation 
in  due  form  ;  and  as  he  came  to  the  signature,  and  the  prayer  following  it,  said: 
"  John  Smith  Governor  ?    God  save  the  Commonwealth  I"     [Laughter.] 

This,  Mr.  Moderator,  illustrates,  to  my  mind,  fairly,  the  manner  in  which  this 
documentary  evidence  was  presented  to  the  court  by  the  prosecutor — so  far, 
especially,  as  relates  to  the  manner  of  the  presentation :  as  to  the  garbling  of  it, 
here  and  there,  I  have  already  referred  to  that. 

I  shall  begin  my  reading  this  morning  from  "Truths  for  To-day,"  upon  the 
seventy-third  page.  I  shall  begin  the  reading  of  extracts  which  will  set  forth  the 
views  of  the  defendant  upon  faith  and  attendant  doctrines,  and  which  will  show 
how  certain  doctrines  are  assumed,  or  only  brieily  stated.  For  example,  the 
doctrine  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  and  the  like: 

"No  man  can  preach  Christianity  without  being  a  doctrinal  preacher." 

It  is  made  one  of  the  offenses  of  the  defendant  that  he  condemns  and  ridicules 
the  doctrines  ;  but  the  passage  which  I  am  about  reading  does  not  give  any  such 
sound  as  that. 

"  No  man  can  preach  Christianity  without  being  a  doctrinal  preacher ;  and  no 
man  can  acquire  a  Christian  or  a  religious  heart  except  by  the  obedience  of 
doctrine.  Doctrines  sustain  the  same  relation  to  Christian  character  that  mechanical 
law  sustains  to  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  or  that  the  law  of  sound  sustains  to 
church  chimes,  or  the  music  of  the  many-voiced  organ.  The  attempt  to  separate 
Cbristianity  in  any  way  from  its  own  announced  doctrines  is  as  pitiable  a  weakness 
as  it  would  be  to  invite  engineers  to  bridge  a  vast  river  by  emotional  action, 
wholly  separated  from  any  creed  of  mechanics.  Having  reached  the  inference 
that  Christianity  is  founded  upon  doctrine — that  doctrines  are  its  State  laws,  and 
that  all  preachers  must  be  doctrinal  preachers,  and  all  Christians  doctrinal  Chris- 
tians, let  us  look  now  into  the  quality  of  these  doctrines,  which  all  must  teach  and 
obey.  "When  we  shall  have  found  these  we  shall  have  escaped  a  thing  which  the 
wicked  world  feai's  or  suspects — a  group  of  human  dogmas  supporting  some  church 
de  facto,  secured  by  a  usurpation  in  some  dark  night,  and  shall  have  found  what 
the  wicked  world  ought  to  love,  a  church  de  jure,  founded  by  the  Almighty  and 
sanctioned  by  the  longings  of  the  soul,  and  by  the  experience  of  all  generations. 
In  seeking  for  these  doctrines  we  may  permit  Christ,  the  Founder  of  Christianity, 
to  supersede  reason  and  point  out  a  path  for  His  followers.  But  the  moment  He 
has  uttered  our  text — that  'Those  which  men  can  subject  to  experience  are  the 
doctrines  that  be  of  God ' — reason  rises  up  and  unites  its  voice  with  that  of  simple 
authority.  The  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  those  which  may  be  tried  by  the 
human  heart.  This  is  declared  often  in  the  Divine  word.  From  the  words  of 
Solomon,  "  Fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of 
man,"  to  the  Saviour's  words  of  the  text ;  from  the  Psalm,  "  O,  taste  and  see  that 
the  Lord  is  good,"  to  the  deeply  spiritual  passage  where  Christ  compares  Himself 
to  bread  to  be  eaten  by  the  soul,  there  is  one  prominent  idea — that  the  doctrines  of 
religion  are  those  which  can  be  converted  into  spiritual  being,  making  the  spirit 
advance  from  childhood  to  the  stature  of  Christ." 

Upon  page  76 — "  But  when  the  Bible  says :  '  He  that  believes  shall  be  saved,* 
it  unfolds  a  doctrine;  for  human  experience,  taking  up  this  faith,  is  wholly  trans- 
formed thereby,  as  a  desert  is  transformed  by  rain  and  sun  into  a  paradise.  Faith 
is  man's  relation  to  Christ,  in  an  intellectual  sense,  in  a  belief  in  the  proposition. 
Just  as  the  student's  love  of  knowledge  is  his  relation  to  all  study  and  wisdom. 
Faith  is  the  union  between  the  cluster  and  the  vine,  between  the  rose  and  the 
nourishing  earth.  Separate  the  rose  and  it  withers — never  reaches  its  bloom. 
Hence,  he  that  bclieveth  not  is  damned,  because,  the  chain  that  should  have  bound 
him  to  God  being  broken,  his  moral  world  sinks,  and  goes  down  in  the  darkness, 
like  the  virgin's  oilless  lamp  when  the  joy  of  the  marriage  feast  was  near.  If  God 
is  the  life  of  the  world,  then  the  soul  that  separates  itself  from  Him  by  unbelief 
•would  seem  to  have  broken  the  chain  of  perpetual  being." 


152       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

On  the  77tli  page — it  is  evidence  that  I  present,  not  argument. 

"Appealing,  therefore,  to  the  range  of  human  experience,  we  must  declare 
faith,  repentance,  and  conversion  to  be  unavoidable  laws  of  Christianity,  not  hav- 
ing come  into  it  by  any  council  of  Catholics  or  Protestants,  but  direct  from  God, 
who  poured  into  the  human  mind  its  reason  and  into  the  heart  its  love.  Not  so 
easily  can  we  persuade  reason  to  admit,  as  a  matter  of  public  experience,  the  idea 
of  a  mediator.  We  waive  the  inquiry  as  to  reason's  voice,  because  we  are  seeking 
not  what  the  public  confesses,  but  Christianity  itself  holds  that  may  perchance  be 
a  matter  of  experience,  may  be  tasted  and  thus  be  seen  to  be  good.  Under  this  head 
of  doctrine  open  to  experience,  we  must  include  the  notion  of  a  mediator,  for  we 
find  millions  of  hearts  glad  in  the  feeling  that  there  is  a  daysman  between  them 
and  God.  Millions  who  have  passed  away  have  gone,  after  a  joyful  life  in  this 
mediator,  to  a  peaceful  death  in  Him.  The  hymns  of  many  ages  from  the  tomb- 
stones of  the  Christian  catacombs,  where  a  few  sweet  words  were  written,  to  the 
'  Lamb  of  God,  I  come,  I  come,'  of  our  century,  the  experience  of  man  as  a 
mediator  has  rolled  along  like  Daniel's  vast  bird  song  over  the  forest  of  Chiassi. 
When  we  sing  the  hymn,  'Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,'  or  'Kock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me,' 
and  look  into  the  faces  of  those  borne  upward  by  this  sentiment,  we  know  that  this 
idea  of  a  mediator  belongs  to  human  experience,  and  hence  is  to  be  enrolled  among 
the  doctrines  of  any  true  Christianity.  Let  us  approach  now  a  more  warmly 
disputed  proposition — that  the  divineness  of  Christ  is  something  essential  in  the 
Christian  system.    The  Trinity,  as  formerly  stated,  cannot  be  experienced." 

Is  that  a  denial  of  the  Trinity?  On  the  contrary,  this  passage  distinctly 
assumes  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  It  is  assumed  as  a  fact,  and  being  assumed 
as  a  fact,  the  deity  of  Christ  is  assumed  as  a  fact. 

Man  has  not  the  power  to  taste  the  threeness  of  one,  nor  the  oneness  of  three, 
and  say  that  it  is  good.  Man  cannot  do  his  will  here  with  reference  to  this  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  and  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  from  God.  It  is  not 
conceivable  that  any  one  will  pretend  to  have  experienced  three  persons  as  being 
one  person,  the  same  in  substance  and  at  the  same  time  equal. 

This  doctrine,  therefore,  is  not  to  be  rejected  nor  denied,  but  to  be  assumed. 

It  belongs  to  the  simple  region  of  fact,  and  not  to  one  of  experience;  and 
hence  the  distance  between  that  idea,  and  the  idea  of  faith  or  penitence  is  the 
difference  between  a  fact  and  a  perpetual  law.  But  while  human  experience  cannot 
approach  the  Trinity,  it  can  approach  the  divineness  of  Christ ;  for  if  Christ  be  not 
divine — and  what  that  phrase  means  we  have  already  been  made  aware  of  by  the 
language  which  I  have  read  before — I  wish  you  would  give  attention  to  this 
passage,  which  was  so  dangerous  and  heretical  in  the  view  of  the  prosecutor,  and 
one  which  he  quoted  to  a  witness  and  asked  his  opinion  as  to  whether  it  was  an 
evangelical  sentiment : 

"For  if  Christ  be  not  divine,  every  impulse  of  the  Christian  world  falls  to  a 
lower  octave,  and  life  and  love  and  hope  alike  decline." 

Now,  take  the  passage  in  its  connection,  I  have  read  what  goes  before,  and 
I  will  read  what  follows  immediately  after  : 

"There  is  no  doctrine  into  which  the  heart  may  so  inweave  itself  and  find 
anchorage  and  peace  as  in  this  divineness  of  the  Lord." 

And  then,  assuming  all  the  while  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  to  be  a  fact, 
Professor  Swing  goes  on  to  say : 

"Christianity  bears  readily  the  idea  of  three  offices." 

Does  "offices"  mean  manifestation  and  bearing,  in  the  dictionary  which  the 
prosecutor  uses  ?     If  it  does,  I  would  like  to  know  what  the  dictionary  is. 

"And  permits  the  one  God  to  appear  in  Father,  in  Son,  or  in  Spirit.  But 
when  the  divine  is  excluded  from  Christ,  and  He  is  left  a  mortal  only,  the  heart, 
robbed  of  the  place  where  the  glory  of  God  was  once  seen,  and  where  the  body  was 
once  seen  rising  from  the  tomb,  and  where  the  words  were  spoken,  'Come  unto 
Me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,'  the  heart  thus  robbed  is  emptied  of  a 
world  of  light  and  hope." 

Now,  interpret  this  sentence  in  the  light  of  the  respondent's  declaration  which 
he  has  made  before  this  Presbytery,  and  it  is  to  the  effect  that  he  holds  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  in  the  evangelical  sense.  And  so  interpreted,  the  doctrines  here  set 
forth  are  not  heretical.  If  they  be,  there  is  more  than  one  heretic  belonging  to 
this  Presbytery. 

I  will  read  also,  continuing  on  the  same  line  of  thought,  from  the  eightieth 
page: 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       153 

"In  presence  of  such  experience,  to  make  Clirist  only  a  frail  human  is  to 
strike  Christianity  in  its  heart's  life;  and  hence,  among  the  great  laws  of  the 
Christian  religion,  selected  by  the  measurement  of  our  text,  we  must  include  the 
divineness  of  our  Lord.  As  a  result  of  the  experience  here  given,  that  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity  are  such  as  may  be  tried  by  experience,  hundreds  of  what  the 
world  calls  dogmas  are  excluded /rowi  any  enumeration  of  essentials,  and  must  stand 
only  among  the  facts,  or  alleged  facts,  of  Christian  history,  and  not  among 
religious  laws  of  life  and  salvation.  God  does  not  ask  you  to  taste  the  tasteless, 
nor  to  experience  that  which  lies  beyond  the  sight  or  sense  ;  but  to  cast  yourself 
into  the  laws  of  faith  and  conversion,  and  repentance,  and  love,  and  hope,  and  of 
the  divine  Lord,  and  upon  these  be  carried  by  a  new  recreative  experience  over  to 
a  new  world,  called  a  new  heart  here — called  heaven  hereafter.  If  we  base  our 
religion  upon  a  revelation,  we  must  find  in  it  not  only  the  existence  of  a  doctrine, 
but  the  relative  value  of  a  doctrine.  We  need  not  go  to  the  Bible  for  a  truth,  and 
to  man  for  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  truth.  The  comparative  value  of  a  truth 
is  to  be  learned  from  the  guide  that  pretends  to  lead  the  human  race.  For  example, 
if  the  doctrine  of  a  faith  plays  a  more  prominent  part  in  the  Bible  than  the 
doctrine  of  infant  baptism,  such  also  will  be  the  order  of  their  usefulness  (does  the 
prosecutor  deny  this  ?)  And  if  the  three  offices  of  God,  as  Father  and  Kedeemer 
and  Spirit,  are  made  more  prominent  than  the  idea  that  these  three  persons  are 
one  God" — and  to  this  certainly  no  one  would  demur — I  don't  find  any  firmer 
statement  of  that  idea  anywhere  in  the  Bible — is  it  not  a  statement,  fair  and 
unequivocal,  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

"Then  what  mankind  will  need  most  will  be  the  three  influences,  God  as  Father, 
God  as  Saviour,  God  as  Holy  Spirit ;  and  what  he  may  make  secondary  is  the 
enigma  of  three  in  one ;  for  why  make  prominent  things  which  are  not  conspicu- 
ous in  the  inspired  guide  ?  By  this  estimate  of  Christianity,  illustrated  in  this 
discourse,  you  who  are  afar  off,  and  unwilling  to  come  nearer  to  this  Saviour,  may 
at  least  find  a  method  of  discriminating  between  a  church  weighed  down  by  a 
hundred  declarations  and  one  simple  religion  of  Christ,  which  announces  but  few 
laws,  and  those  all  measurable  by  your  own  experience." 

On  page  83,  "  Truths  for  To-day,"  we  find  the  following  : 

O,  skeptical  friend  I  O,  Christian,  too!  Fly  each  day  from  the  debate  over 
simple  events  or  entities  in  religion  to  the  laws  of  being  that  may  be  tasted  like 
sweet  fruit,  and  which  confess  themselves  at  once  to  belong  to  the  nature  of  God 
and  man.     It  is  in  this  realm  of  experience  the  millions  of  earth  become  one. 

On  page  101  the  following  passages  occur  : 

The  evidences  of  Christianity  must  be  weighed  by  a  mind  not  averse  to  virtue, 
not  averse  to  the  being  and  presence  of  a  just  God  :  by  a  mind  not  wholly  wedded 
to  exact  science,  but  full  of  tender  of  sympathy  with  man,  and  pity  for  him  if  his 
career  of  study  and  love  is  to  terminate  at  the  grave ;  by  a  mind  capable  of  looking 
away  from  the  market  place  and  from  the  pleasure  of  sense  and  of  beholding  the 
vast  human  family  flashing  their  angelic  wings  afar  oft"  beyond  these  humbler 
times  and  scenes.  The  evidences  of  Christianity  must  be  weighed  by  a  soul  capable 
of  sadness  and  of  hope.  Not  simply  must  the  books  of  theologians  be  read  for,  and 
the  books  of  skeptics  against,  the  doctrines  of  faith,  but  the  genius  of  earth,  its 
little  children,  its  joys,  its  laughter,  its  cradle,  its  marriage  altar,  its  deep  love 
crushed  often  in  its  building,  its  final  white  hair,  its  mighty  sorrow,  embracing  all 
last  from  its  Christ  to  its  humblest  child  in  its  black  mantle,  must  be  confessed  in 
its  inmost  heart;  then  when  to  such  a  spirit  the  common  arguments  of  religion 
are  only  whispered,  the  sanctuary  of  God  would  seem  to  be  founded  in  eternity, 
and  men  here  and  angels  elsewhere  will  throng  its  blessed  gates. 

Let  us  now  revert  to  faith  as  we  find  it  on  page  242  : 

Faith  is  evidence  of  the  soul's  attachment  to  a  being. 

It  is  not  assent  to  a  proposition,  but  attachment  to  a  person. 

At  page  245  the  following  is  stated  : 

If  there  were  enough  truth — truth  of  morals  and  redemption — in  the  Moham- 
medan and  Buddhist  system  to  save  the  soul,  faith  would  be  the  law  of  salvation 
within  those  systems. 

You  will  remember  that  this  is  embraced  in  some  of  the  specifications.  You 
will  remember  also  that  the  prosecutor  called  special  attention  to  that  little  word 
"if."  I  approve  his  suggestion  and  commend  it  to  you  in  this  connection.  It  is 
a  question  of  fact  that  is  stated.  There  is  no  salvation  in  those  systems  mentioned ; 
if  there  were,  then  faith  would  be  the  law  of  salvation  in  them,  and  yet  they 


154       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

require  a  belief.  But  Professor  Swing  does  not  here  say  that  salvation  by  faith  is 
not  peculiar  to  Christianity.  On  the  contrary,  by  any  fair  and  reasonable  con- 
struction of  his  language  that  is  just  what  he  does  say.     He  says  : 

"Faith  comes  into  Christianity,  thus  not  by  the  exceptional  decree  of  God, 
but  by  the  universal  law  of  nature." 

Let  us  look  at  this  doctrine  of  Divine  sovereignty,  as  there  is  some  reference 
to  it  in  this  passage. 

Now,  men  have  always  differed  in  opinion  on  the  question  whether  there  is  a 
natural  element  in  faith  or  a  reasonable  element,  and,  whatever  the  opinions  herein 
expressed  on  that  point,  I  submit  that  there  is  no  heresy. 

I  now  return  to  page  105.  I  ask  your  attention  in  this  connection  to  a  passage 
in  "Faith  and  Works."  Let  me  first  say  that  Professor  Swing  is  planting  himself 
here  square  upon  the  text  which  he  announces  for  his  discourse,  and  he  is  opposing 
those  who  pervert  it. 

"Paul  says,  'Faith  works  by  love ;'  he  insisted  on  good  works,  as  he  sets  forth 
in  his  Epistle  to  Titus,  seventh  chapter,  eighth  verse,  and  in  First  Timothy,  sixth 
chapter,  seventeenth  and  nineteenth  verses." 

Upon  the  one  hundred  and  fifth  page  we  find  the  following : 

"The  doctrines  of  salvation  by  faith  must,  therefore,  be  so  stated  and  held  as 
to  leave  society  its  friend,  trusting  faith  rather  than  fearing  it,  and  must  be  so 
stated  and  held  as  to  leave  other  doctrines  of  Christianity  some  reason  of  existence. 
*  *  *  There  are  always  those  with  whom  some  one  doctrine  has  eclipsed  all 
other  truths  of  the  Bible." 

And  now  if  the  prosecutor  calls  in  question  these  doctrines  as  set  forth  in  the 
passage  I  have  read,  I  beg  to  refer  him  to  the  last  number  of  the  Literior,  of  which 
he  is  the  editor,  [laughter]  wherein  it  is  said : 

"No  great  principle  must  be  taken  by  itself,  and  herein  is  where  so  many 
mistakes  are  made  by  many  thinkers.  The  principle  or  law  of  gravitation  by  itself 
would  plunge  the  solar  system  into  the  fiery  billows  of  the  sun  and  give  us  a  grand 
cremation  of  worlds.  So  Luther  was  so  filled  with  the  grand  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith  that  he  ignored  and  contradicted  the  necessary  fruits  and  purposes 
of  faith.  But  he  reformed  his  opinion  as  he  pursued  the  study  of  the  word.  The 
wildness  of  all  extremists,  the  meteor-liko  rush  away  from  harmonious  systems  of 
truth  which  we  so  often  see  in  the  world  of  thought,  results  from  taking  a  single 
truthful  principle  and  following  it  without  regard  to  other  principles  which  bear 
upon  it." 

A  second  Daniel  come  to  judgment !    [Laughter.] 

Observe  the  Inierioi — unless  we  say  it  is  vague  and  ambiguous — asserts  that 
good  works  are  the  purposes  of  faith,  which  is  parallel  to  that  charge  that  Profes- 
sor Swing  teaches,  that  faith  saves  because  it  leads  to  a  holy  life,  because  he  speaks 
of  works  as  the  destiny  of  faith.  Oh,  what  is  the  Interior  coming  to  ?  If  we  cannot 
trust  it.     "What  and  whom  can  we  trust  ?  [Laughter.] 

[Turning  to  page  111,  the  counsel  read  at  length  from  the  sermon  on  "Good 
"Works,"  and  said:] 

Before  I  again  resume  the  reading  of  Professor  Swing's  sermons  I  desire  to 
call  attention  to  an  opinion  given  by  Dr.  Hodge  with  reference  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  an  opinion  which  may  be  found  recorded  on  page  290  of  the  Presby- 
terian Keunion  Memorial  Volume.     It  is  as  follows  : 

"If  a  man  comes  to  us  and  adopts  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  our  confes- 
sion we  have  a  right  to  ask  him.  'Do  you  believe  there  are  three  persons  in  the 
Godhead,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  these  three  are  one 
God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and  glory?'  If  he  says  'Yes,'  we  are 
satisfied.  "We  do  not  call  upon  him  to  explain  how  three  persons  are  one  God,  or 
to  determine  in  what  relations  in  the  awful  mystery  of  the  Godhead  are  indicated 
by  the  terms  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

In  specification  21  Professor  Swing  is  accused  of  denying  the  doctrine  of  Justi- 
fication by  Faith,  as  held  by  the  Eeformed  churches  and  taught  in  the  "Westmin- 
ster Confession  of  Faith.  On  page  120  of  "Truths  for  To-day,"  you  will  find 
these  words : 

"That  grand  text  which  helped  revolutionize  the  Christian  world  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  'The  just  shall  live  by  faith,'  having  by  its  final  word  set  us  free 
from  Komish  error  and  despair,  ought  now  by  its  initial  word  to  help  to  set  us  free 
from  public  and  private  neglect  of  a  virtuous  character." 


ARGUMENTS  FOR  THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       155 

It  is  evident  from  this  passage,  said  Mr.  Noyes,  that  Professor  Swing  uses  the 
word  "faith"  in  the  reformed  sense  of  the  tei-m. 

[The  counsel  for  the  defense  then  read  passages,  without  comment,  on  pages 
248,  251,  252,  and  271,  of  "Truths  for  To-day,"  to  show  that  Professor  Swing 
preached  that  "faith  produces  works  and  character."] 

At  pages  80  and  81  of  the  sermon  "Vahie  of  Moral  Motive,"  in  Keen,  Cooke 
&  Co.'s  book,  the  following  passage  occurs  : 

"There  was  something  in  the  times  of  Calvin  and  Luther,  and  on  to  Jonathan 
Edwards,  that  enabled  the  motive  of  punishment  to  be  very  influential  for  good. 
To  inquire  whether  anything  would  have  done  as  good  service  would  be  about 
like  the  inquiry  whether  some  other  method  of  light  and  heat  might  not  have  been 
resorted  to  by  the  Creator  that  would  have  made  our  existing  sun  unnecessary. 
It  is  certain  that  'the  terror  of  the  Lord'  wielded  a  mighty  influence  on  the  past 
centuries,  and  the  same  impulse  of  virtue  will  be  always  extant  and  active,  but  to 
the  millions  of  a  subsequent  age  a  new  impulse  is  liable  to  arrive,  and  expressing 
itself  in  the  words,  'the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us,'  may,  for  a  time,  be  a  com- 
plete universe  to  the  existing  heart." 

At  page  13  there  is  a  very  strong,  and  I  think  unequivocal  and  unambiguous, 
statement  of  the  doctrine  of  God's  sovereignty. 

The  doctrine  of  God's  absolute  sovereignty  is  just  as  true  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  King  CEdipus  or  of  Calvin.  It  will  always  remain  a  confessed  fact  that 
God's  will  must  be  a  supremo  will  of  the  world,  but  while  this  is  confessed,  yet  we 
do  perceive  that  our  age  is  a  fact  passes  over  the  great  absolutism  in  silence,  com- 
pared with  the  age  of  Athens  or  Geneva,  and  God's  love  and  sweet  Fatherhood 
become  more  visible  than  His  absolute  despotism." 

The  idea  of  Almighty  love  is  brought  prominently  forward,  and  the  idea  of 
Almighty  power  and  divine  sovereignty  is  left  in  the  background. 

And  now  I  bring  to  an  end  my  readings  from  Professor  Swing's  sermons.  I 
might  extend  them  indefinitely.  But  I  feel  that  the  documentary  evidence  I  have 
already  presented  is  simply  overwhelming;  and  that  if  there  is  any  one  in  this 
body  who  is  not  satisfied  with  it,  "  neither  would  he  be  convinced  though  one  rose 
from  the  dead."  I  ask  you  to  consider  this  evidence,  give  it  that  weight  to  which 
it  is  entitled  on  account  of  the  clear  and  unequivocal  statements  of  evangelical 
doctrines  which  it  contains.  Brethren,  I  know  that  you  have  not  failed  to  find 
these  doctrines  as  I  have  read  them  ;  and  that  you  will  not,  in  making  up  your 
verdict,  be  influenced  by  any  fear  of  Professor  Patton's  contempt  of  your  intelli- 
gence, for  you  remember  that  he  has  warned  you  in  advance  that  if  you  do  find 
the  evangelical  doctrines  in  these  sermons  he  will  believe  that  you  do  not  knov? 
what  these  doctrines  are  yourselves.  I  challenge  the  prosecutor  to  find  a  state- 
ment in  Professor  Swing's  sermons  that  cannot  be  explained  as  evangelical. 

Before  I  pass  from  the  consideration  of  the  indictment,  there  are  two  things 
that  I  have  to  say.  The  first,  that  the  opening  statements  of  my  argument  have 
been  abundantly  proved,  both  by  oral  and  documentary  testimony.  I  said  there 
was  nothing  in  this  indictment  from  beginning  to  end,  so  far  as  the  specifications 
are  concerned,  except  the  inferences  of  the  prosecutor.  Taking  these  away,  there 
would  be  nothing  left  of  the  complaint.  And  these,  as  I  have  shown,  ought  never 
to  have  been  admitted  into  the  indictment  at  all.  The  complaint,  on  the  very  face 
of  it,  is  defective  throughout,  either  in  substance  or  form.  The  form  is  vague,  or 
the  substance  is  only  shadow  cast  by  the  dark  thoughts  which  the  prosecutor  has 
entertained  of  Professor  Swing's  language.  I  shall  not,  therefore,  follow  him  in 
his  vigorous  and  brilliant  pleadings  as  he  passed  from  one  specification  to  another, 
perverting  the  language  of  the  defendant,  and  so  making  it  to  appear  that  its 
teaching  was  false  and  dangerous.  I  speak  to  intelligent  men,  who  can  judge  of 
the  plain  and  obvious  meaning  of  language  as  well  as  he. 

But  there  are  two  of  the  specifications  on  which,  before  I  leave  this  part  of  the 
subject,  I  desire  to  ofi'er  a  few  words.  They  are  specifications  23  and  21.  The 
address  of  the  defendant  yesterday  must  have  met  and  removed  any  doubts  which 
any  member  of  this  court  may  have  entertained  upon  this  subject.  But  I  desire 
to  recall  to  mind  two  statements  which  have  been  submitted  in  evidence.  The 
first  was  made  by  Dr.  Patterson  when  he  was  upon  the  witness  stand.  Ilis  testi- 
mony was  distinct  and  emphatic,  to  the  eff'ect  that  Professor  Swing  had  explained 
to  him  that  in  his  use  of  the  word  eclecticism,  he  meant  only  an  eclecticism  of  use. 
And  when  the  prosecutor  said,  as  he  did  say  before  you  yesterday,  that  Dr.  Patter- 
son's statement  was  not  evidence,  he  simply  impeached  the  veracity  of  the  witness. 


156       ARGUMENTS  FOR  THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

I  do  not  think  that  this  court  will  sustain  that  impeachment.  The  one  assumption 
upon  which  as  a  basis  or  foundation  the  prosecutor  has  raised  the  whole  splendid 
superstructure  of  his  argument  is  this:  that  the  respondent  at  your  bar  is  a  liar. 
[Sensation.]  To  sustain  this  assumption,  in  other  words,  to  keep  the  foundation 
under  the  argument,  and  so  prevent  its  tumbling  down  into  shapeless  ruin,  all 
risks  must  be  accepted.  The  defandant's  categorical  averments  must  be  emphati- 
cally denied,  and  the  supporting  testimony  of  responsible  witnesses  must  be  fear- 
lessly contradicted.  And  all  this  as  a  direct  defiance  of  the '  authority  of  the 
General  Assembly,  which  has  declared  that  an  accused  party  shall  be  accorded  the 
poor  privileges  of  defining  the  m(?aning  of  the  language  which  he  employs.  Fully 
corroborative  of  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Patterson  are  the  statements  which  the 
defendant  made  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Judkins.  [Counsel  here  read  the  letter,  which 
has  already  been  published  in  the  Inter-Ocean. 

Passing  now  from  the  documentary  to  the  oral  testimony,  to  which  I  have  so 
far  made  only  incidental  reference,  I  need  not  make  any  extended  review  of  it.  Of 
oral  testimony,  the  court  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say  that  the  prosecutor  had 
absolutely  none.  In  this  respect  the  trial,  on  his  part,  proved  to  be  a  broad  farce  1 
[Sensation.]  His  own  witnesses  turned  out  to  be  strong  witnesses  for  the  defense. 
Especially  was  this  true  of  Mr.  Thompson  and  Dr.  Patterson.  Nor  will  the  pros- 
ecutor's great  skill  in  special  pleading  at  all  avail  to  break  the  force  of  Dr.  Patter- 
son's testimony.  He  was  a  ministerial  brother  who  early  fulfilled  his  duty  to  his 
misrepresented  and  maligned  friend.  He  did  not  shun  him,  and  nurse  his  doubts 
until  he  should  be  ready  to  give  them  voice  and  send  them  to  every  part  of  the 
church,  but  he  went  to  him  in  the  spirit  of  love.  What  he  learned  in  these  inter- 
views he  has  declared  to  this  court.  His  testimony  cannot  be  in  the  least  inval- 
idated by  any  attempt  to  pervert  the  language  which  he  employed  in  his  letter  to 
the  Interior.  The  circumstances  under  which  that  letter  was  written  are  a  sure 
guide  to  its  right  interpretation.  Professor  Swing  had  been  publicly  accused  as 
having,  in  heart,  gone  clear  over  to  the  enemy's  camp.  The  air  had  been  filled 
with  suspicion  against  him.  On  every  hand  men  were  speaking  to  each  other  their 
fears.  In  this  state  of  things  Dr.  Patterson,  obeying  a  very  manful  impulse,  wrote 
to  the  Interior  expressing  strongly  his  disapprobation  of  its  course  toward  Professor 
Swing.  Knowing  that  the  latter  was  openly  charged  with  expressing  the  truth  in 
his  ministry,  he  said  that  "in  so  far  as  he  failed  to  preach  the  central  doctrines  of 
the  gospel,  his  preaching  was  seriously  defective."  Was  that  saying  that  he  dis- 
avowed these  doctrines  ?  Not  at  all.  It  was  only  saying  that  if  he  did,  and  in  so 
far  as  he  did,  his  preaching  was  seriously  defective,  and  to  that  position  the  Doctor 
probably  holds  to-day. 

But  the  prosecutor  undertakes  to  impeach  the  testimony  given  by  the  elders  of 
the  Fourth  Church.  Well  he  might,  for  it  bore  mightily  against  him.  He  insists 
that  parol  testimony  has  no  value  when  written  sermons  may  be  had  in  evidence. 
I  have  two  things  to  say  in  reply:  These  elders  are  the  "living  epistles"  of  Mr. 
Swing's  ministry.  On  the  theory  of  the  prosecutor,  that  they  have  been  fed  on 
the  poison  of  false  doctrine,  and  on  that  alone,  I  think  that  Professor  Swing  him- 
self must  admit  that  they  showed  themselves  to  be  pretty  sound  and  healthy  Chris- 
tians. It  is  hardly  worthwhile  to  be  fed  on  "the  sincere  milk  of  the  word,"  if 
false  teachings  can  make  such  orthodox  Christians. 

The  very  same  sermons  from  which  Professor  Patton  sucks  only  the  deadly 
poison  of  false  doctrine  are  the  sermons  from  which  these  plain,  uncaviling  men 
extract  the  honey  of  truth.  That  which  is  deadly  to  him  is  nourishing  to  them. 
That  which  fills  lais  soul  with  trouble  fills  theirs  with  light  and  peace,  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  That  which  makes  him  "black  with  astonishment,"  to  use  the 
expressive  words  of  the  old  prophet,  makes  them  radiant  with  joy.  That  which 
fills  him  with  sorrow  and  sighing  inspires  them  to  go  on  their  way  with  songs. 
I  ask  your  attention  to  this,  Mr.  Moderator  and  brethren  of  the  court.  It  is  a 
curious  phenomenon.  It  is  worth  studying  for  the  lessons  it  may  yield.  Can  "  a 
fountain  send  forth  at  the  same  place  sweet  water  and  bitter?"  We  know  it  cannot. 
But  where  is  the  bitterness  then,  of  which  the  prosecutor  so  loudly  complains  ?  It 
must  be  in  him,  and  not  in  the  fountain  of  whose  waters  he  still  persists  in  drink- 
ing BO  copiously.  The  oral  testimony  of  these  elders  thus  becomes  very  strong.  It 
shows  that  the  impressions  which  they  received  are  totally  different  from  the 
impressions  which  Professor  Patton  received  from  reading  them  or  garbled  portions 
of  them.  The  sermons  are  the  same,  and  yet  they  are  not  the  same.  But  then, 
where  is  the  common-sense  man  who  does  not  know  that  the  best  way  by  which  to 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       157 

test  the  nourishing  quality  of — roast  beef,  for  instance,  is  to  eat  it,  and  not  to 
analyze  it?  And  so,  businessmen,  who  are  laden  with  manifold  responsibilities 
and  cares,  need  to  feed  upon  the  truth  ;  and  it  is  not  for  the  cloistered  theologian 
to  demand  that  they  shall  be  skilled  enough  first  to  analyze  it,  and  see  if  it  be 
tainted  with  error  before  they  feed  upon  it. 

This  is  one  form  of  my  answer  to  the  prosecutor's  special  pleading  against  the 
admissibility  and  value  of  this  evidence.  My  other  answer  will  serve  to  correct  a 
mistake  into  which  he  seems  to  have  fallen.  We  have  in  no  instance  set  out  to 
prove  the  contents  of  a  paper.  The  one  thing  which  we  have  aimed  to  do  is  to 
establish  before  this  body  the  thoroughly  evangelical  character  of  the  defendant's 
preaching.  This,  I  think,  we  have  abundantly  done,  and  by  the  testimony  of  men 
who  sustain  prominent  business  and  social  relations  to  this  community,  and  whose 
moral  and  Christian  characters  are  without  a  stain.  Professor  Swing  often  fills  out 
his  sermons  by  the  addition  of  extemporized  passages  ;  his  teachings  in  the  prayer 
meeting  are  all  extemporaneous ;  and  we  have  proved  that  his  teachings  are  not,  as 
this  indictment  falsely  charges,  heretical,  but  evangelical  and  fruitful. 

Nor  is  it  a  generous  thing  in  the  prosecutor  to  undertake  to  break  down  this 
testimony  by  attempting  to  show  that  the  witnesses  are  incompetent  by  reason  of 
prejudice  or  self-interest.  He  has  not  a  shadow  of  evidence  to  support  his  allega- 
tions. The  men  whose  testimony  he  impeaches  are  well  known  in  this  community, 
and  it  will  not  anywhere  be  believed  that  their  testimony  can  be  invalidated.  That 
they  are  deeply  interested  in  this  prosecution,  as  officers  who  are  responsible  for 
the  character  of  the  teaching  which  the  congregation  "  over  whom  the  Holy  Ghost 
iiath  made  them  overseers,"  shall  receive,  is  undoubtedly  true ;  then,  indeed,  might 
their  evidence  be  regarded  as  without  value.  But  that  they  are  prejudiced  is 
utterly  untrue. 

The  only  witnesses  for  the  prosecutor  who  gave  his  case  any  shadow  of  support 
were  Messrs.  Goudy  and  Miller.  I  have  not  sought,  nor  have  I  any  thought  of 
seeking  to  discredit  their  testimony.  One  of  these  gentlemen  I  know  well  and 
very  highly  esteem.  I  think  both  of  them  will  regard  me  as  doing  them  a  favor 
if  I  say  that  they  do  not  range  themselves  among  the  admirers  of  Professor  Swing. 
But  their  ^.estimony  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  questioned  on  any  ground  of 
prejudice.     Neither  is  the  testimony  of  the  Fourth  Church  elders  to  be  questioned. 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  say  a  word  of  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Shufeldt,  but  it  shall 
be  only  a  word.  I  do  not  imagine  that  any  member  of  this  court  regards  that 
testimony  as  establishing  anything.  Mr.  Shufeldt  confessed  that  his  recollection 
was  very  uncertain.  "While  he  was  sure  that  certain  branches  of  the  tree  were 
broken  ofl",  yet  whether  those  branches  represented  any  of  the  five  points  of 
Calvinism  was  a  matter  of  doubt. 

And  now,  Mr.  Moderator,  before  I  proceed  to  speak  of  certain  points  in  the 
argument  of  the  prosecutor,  there  are  some  other  matters  to  which  I  must  refer, 
as  having  a  decided  bearing  upon  this  case.  It  is  my  duty  to  refer  to  certain 
facts  which  are  properly  a  part  of  this  case.  And  one  of  these  matters  of  history 
is,  that  during  all  the  long  period  which  intervened  between  the  first  opening  of 
the  newspaper  discussion  on  "  Inspiration,"  and  the  exhibition  of  charges  against 
the  defendant,  the  prosecutor  never  once  went  to  Professor  Swing  to  try  the  effect 
of  a  fraternal  conference  in  bringing  them  into  a  fraternal  and  doctrinal  agree- 
ment. I  am  aware  that  he  says  it  was  not  a  private,  but  a  public,  offense  with 
which  Mr,  Swing  was  charged.  But  this  plea  fails  to  meet  the  facts  of  the  case,  as 
I  shall  show. 

The  specification  which  connects  with  it  the  name  of  Mr.  Collier  as  a  witness 
is  a  very  serious  matter.  Such  a  charge,  if  proved  true,  would  blast  the  name  of 
any  man,  no  matter  how  potent  the  name  might  previously  have  been.  But  who 
is  the  man  against  whom  this  grave  charge  is  blurted  forth  to  the  world  ?  He  has 
lived  in  this  community  for  seven  years.  During  all  this  time  his  good  name  has 
never  been  sullied  by  the  breath  of  scandal ;  never  have  evil  words  been  framed 
against  him  until  they  were  framed  into  this  indictment  by  the  prosecutor  in  this 
case,  and  perhaps  by  another  hand  which  is  said  to  have  lent  its  best  cunning  for 
the  work.  Of  accused  and  accuser  or  accusers,  therefore,  the  words  of  Cowper  are 
strikingly  descriptive : 

"  Assailed  by  scandal  and  the  tongue  of  strifoj 
His  only  answer  was  a  blameless  life  ; 
And  he  that  forged,  and  he  that  threw  the  dart. 
Had  each  a  brother's  interest  in  his  heart." 


1-58       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

Mr.  Moderator,  it  is  an  inspired  declaration  that  "a  good  name  is  rather  to 
be  chosen  than  great  riches;"  and  in  the  same  volume  of  living  truth  we  learn 
that  "a  good  name  is  better  than  precious  ointment,"  In  view  of  these  divine 
testimonies,  I  leave  it  with  this  Presbytery  to  say  whether  the  hasty  publication 
of  this  report  was  not  a  wrong  to  Professor  Swing. 

I  must  also  put  on  record  the  expression  of  my  regret  that  Professor  Patton 
did  not  feel  moved  to  seek  a  conference  with  elders  of  the  Fourth  Church  very 
eoon  after  he  found  himself  wrestling  with  doubts  as  to  Mr.  Swing's  orthodoxy, 
and  especially  when,  at  a  later  day,  he  found  fear  that  this  loved  pastor  was  at 
heart  an  unbeliever  in  evangelical  doctrines,  and  a  dangerous  teacher  ;  he  would 
have  found  in  all  these  elders  verj'  intelligent  Christian  gentlemen,  who  are  keenly 
alive,  not  only  to  the  good  of  their  pastor,  but  also  to  the  welfare  of  their  church, 
and  to  the  interests  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  large ;  he  would  have  discovered 
that  they  ai'e  discreet  in  counsel  and  sound  in  the  faith.  They  would  have  given 
an  instant  and  respectful  hearing  to  the  utterance  of  his  anxieties  and  fears.  And 
considering  the  danger  that  a  popular  pastor  .going  astray  himself  should  lead  his 
people  astray  also,  it  is  certainly  to  be  regretted  that  Professor  Patton  should  have 
entered  upon  this  prosecution  without  so  much  as  attempting  a  mediation.  Surely, 
if  the  pastor  must  be  given  up  as  hopeless,  it  were  worth  while  to  try  and  save 
the  church  ;  but  this  was  not  done.  I  do  not  speak  of  these  things  otherwise  than 
with  sorrow.  I  think  it  must  be  submitted  that  this  deplorable  breach  of  the  peace 
which  we  witness  now  has,  at  the  least,  been  inconsiderately  brought  about.  Every 
means  of  private  mediation  should  have  been  tried  and  exhausted  beforehand. 

But  I  pass  from  these  animadver.sions,  which  I  have  no  pleasure  in  making, 
but  which  my  duty,  in  this  case  requires  that  I  should  make,  to  ask  your  attention 
to  the  argument  which  the  prosecutor  has  made  in  support  of  his  indictment.  As 
an  honorable  opponent  I  am  glad  to  bear  witness  to  his  ability,  if  not  to  the  candor 
displayed  in  it.  Grant  him  the  assumption  which  is  the  underlying  basis  of  all 
his  plea,  and  there  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  to  which  that  plea  conducts 
you.  That  assumption  is,  that  the  defendant  in  this  case  is  not  a  truthful  man. 
If  the  members  of  this  court  believe  this  assumption  of  the  prosecutor,  then  the 
present  indictment  ought  to  be  dismissed,  and  a  new  one  framed  on^which  the 
defendant  should  be  charged  with  falsehood.  But  I  know  they  do  not  believe 
this.  It  is  singular  that  the  prosecutor  should  distinctly  declare,  as  he  did  on 
this  last  day  of  his  argument,  that  he  did  not  believe  the  respondent's  declarations 
before  the  Presbytery  at  the  opening  of  this  trial.  Por  many  months  previously  he 
had  appealed  to  him  through  the  Interior  to  give  to  the  world  an  explicit  affirmation 
that  he  held  to  the  evangelical  creed,  and  then  he,  the  prosecutor,  would  be  satis- 
fied. When  at  last  an  opportunity  was  offered  and  improved  for  making  that 
explicit  declaration,  the  prosecutor  characterized  it  as  a  "candid  statement."  But 
it  seems  that  a  candid  statement  may  also  be  a  false  statement,  for  Professor  Patton 
now  declares  that  he  does  not  believe  the  defendant.  It  is  his  conviction  of  his 
insincerity  and  untruthfulness,  then  what  is  the  animus  of  this  whole  prosecution  ? 
It  is  this  assumption  which  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  prosecutor's  whole 
argument. 

Professor  Swing's  sermons  readily  and  naturally  admit  of  an  evangelical 
meaning.  They  not  only  admit  of  that,  but  they  are  full  of  Gospel  truth.  His 
elders  testify  that  he  preaches  the  same  doctrines  that  they  heard  all  their  lives 
from  Presbyterian  pulpits ;  and  yet,  in  the  face  of  these  testimonies,  the  prosecutor 
labors  three  days  to  prove  that  the  defendant  is  not  evangelical.  I  submit  that 
such  an  argument,  however  plausible  and  brilliant,  does  not  challenge  any  very 
serious  examination.  The  argument  cannot  be  true,  if  the  defendant  is  true  ;  and 
the  defendant  cannot  be  true  if  the  argument  is  true  ;  and  in  either  event,  there 
is  no  case  on  this  indictment.  But  there  are  some  considerations  which  the  prose- 
cutor's argument  suggests,  and  which  are  of  great  importance  in  their  bearing 
upon  a  right  adjudication  of  this  case.  One  of  these  is  that  every  man's  words 
should  be  interpreted  with  reference  to  the  relations  which  he  may  sustain  toward 
any  body  of  Christians.  Language  spoken  by  an  Unitarian  would  not  be  used  to 
convey  the  meaning  which  the  same  words,  when  employed  by  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  would  be  designed  to  convey  ;  the  standpoint  of  the  two  men  being 
different,  their  views  will  be  different  on  vital  matters,  even  though  those  views 
may  be  expressed  in  substantially  the  same  language. 

Mr.  Moderator,  I  do  not  know,  but  I  have  an  impression,  that  in  your 
'  preaching  you  generally  speak  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  seldom  or  never  of 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE.       159 

the  deity  of  Christ.  Shall  we,  therefore,  begin  to  suspect  you,  and  whisper  our 
fears  to  one  another  with  bated  breath,  or  publish  our  doubts  in  a  newspaper  ?  If 
you  do  say  "  Divinity  of  Christ,"  then  you  say  no  more  than  an  Unitarian  would 
say.  No,  sir.  Divinity  of  Christ  means  from  your  lips  and  from  the  lips  of  Professor 
Swing,  one  thing,  and  from  the  pen  of  James  Freeman  Clarke  it  means  quite 
another  thing.  These  statements,  so  obviously  true,  will  help  us  to  see  how  grossly 
unfair  the  prosecutor  has  been  in  attempting  to  trace  an  identity  of  view  between 
Professor  Swing  and  Unitarian  thinkers,  because  they  alike  use  certain  terms,  such 
as  "divinity  of  Christ" — calling  Christ  "divine,"  "Saviour,"  etc.  These  are 
the  very  terms  which  Presbyterian  ministers  use,  so  far  as  I  know,  almost  univer- 
sally. It  is,  then,  to  the  last  degree  unfair  to  single  out  one  of  them,  and  under- 
take to  disgrace  him  before  the  Church  for  using  those  terms  which  are  the  common 
speech  of  our  ministry.  Not  less  unworthy  and  reprehensible  were  the  efforts  of 
the  prosecutor  to  establish  a  similarity  of  views  between  Professor  Swing  on  the  one 
hand  and  such  men  as  Tylor  and  Lubbock  on  the  other. 

During  our  late  civil  war,  we  had  two  classes  of  men  among  us.  One  class 
comprised  a  mighty  multitude ;  the  other  a  small  handful  of  people.  Both  classes 
talked  of  loyalty,  of  devotion,  of  devotion  to  the  country,  of  love  for  the  flag.  But, 
sir,  this  language,  though  the  same,  was  not  the  same.  It  did  not  mean  the  same 
thing;  and  in  order  to  be  certain  what  it  did  mean,  you  had  first  to  ascertain  to 
which  of  the  two  classes  the  speaker  belonged.  When  j'ou  knew  whether,  he 
belonged  to  the  party  of  Unionists  or  Southern  sympathizers,  then  you  knew  what 
he  meant  by  loyalty,  and  love  for  the  flag.  And  so  it  is  with  respect  to  theological 
divisions  to-day.  Unless  you  interpret  a  man's  words  by  the  relations  he  sustains, 
there  is  not  a  minister  in  this  Presbytery  who  would  stand  the  test  to  which  the 
prosecutor  has  subjected  Professor  Swing.  There  is  not  one  of  you  all  who  has  not, 
time  and  time  again,  uttered  paragraphs  substantially  the  same  in  phraseology  as 
those  which  any  Unitarian  might  utter ;  but  you  are  not,  therefore,  Unitarians. 
Professor  Patton  says  he  believes  the  Gospel.  So  do  the  Free  Keligionists  say  the 
same  thing.  Are  they,  therefore,  alike  ?  God  forbid  !  and  yet  they  are,  if  using 
the  same  terms  makes  men  alike.  Let  us  not  hear  any  more  of  a  kind  of  pleading 
so  wholly  irrelevant  to  the  case,  and  so  unfair  to  the  defendant. 

[A  long  extract  from  an  article  in  the  Princeton  Review,  by  Dr.  Henry  Smith, 
of  Princeton  College,  bearing  in  precisely  the  same  line  of  thought  Professor 
Swing  was  taken  in  task  for  following,  was  here  re  id ;  and,  being  finished,  recess 
was  taken  until  2  o'clock  p.  m.     It  was  then  about  12:30.] 

AFTERNOON  SESSION, 

At  two  o'clock.  Presbytery  having  re-assembled,  the  Eev.  Mr.Wisner  said  that 
ample  proof  had  been  off'ered  the  court  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  English  language 
as  an  adequate  medium  fur  the  expression  of  thought  in  an  unambiguous  manner. 
He,  therefore,  moved  that  it  be  supplanted  in  the  Presbytery  by  its  great  sister, 
the  German  language,  which  had  no  such  defect.  [Laughter.]  An  effort  was 
being  made  to  have  the  language  taught  in  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States. 

The  motion  was  seconded  amid  much  merriment.  It  was  shortly  afterward 
tabled,  and  the  proceedings  of  Presbytery  will  continue  to  be  conducted  in  the 
"ambiguous"  English  tongue. 

Eider  Williams  asked  Presbytery  to  make  arrangements  for  the  installation 
of  the  Rev,  Dr.  Hurd  as  pastor  of  Highland  Park  Church. 

The  call  having  been  read  and  accepted  by  Mr.  Hurd,  the  Revs.  Walker  and 
Taylor,  with  Elder  Williams,  were  appointed  Installation  Committee. 

Dr.  Blackburn  moved  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider  the  question 
as  to  how  the  vote  on  the  Patton  charges  should  be  taken,  and  report  to  the  court. 
He  explained  that  the  motion  was  not  made  with  any  wish  to  introduce  any  new 
method,  but  in  order  to  facilitate  business. 

The  Eev.  B.  E.  S.  Ely  strongly  opposed  the  motion,  and  threatened  to  read 
and  submit  an  elaborate  plan  on  voting,  which,  he  said,  he  had  prepared. 

The  motion  was  tabled. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes  thereupon  resumed  his  address  for  the  defense. 

There  is  another  reason,  he  said,  for  entertaining  the  motion  submitted  by 
Mr.  Wisner,  in  the  fact  that  it  seems  not  yet  to  be  understood  what  is  the  doctri- 
nal position  of  Professor  Swing  before  this  body.  [Laughter.]  We  have  been 
told  that  he  had  omitted  altogether  to  state  what  his  creed  was ;    that  it  was  not 


160       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

possible  to  find  out  from  the  declaration  read  before  this  body  what  his  views 
really  were,  and  for  the  reason,  as  was  alleged,  that  he  had  not  given  them  any 
distinct  statement  of  his  views,  but  had  simply  said  on  what  grounds  he  would  bo 
ready  to  meet  the  skeptical,  and  educated,  and  sinful  world.  In  his  declaration  he 
said:  "Holding  the  general  creed  as  rendered  by  the  former  New  School  Theolo- 
gians, I  will,  in  addition  to  such  a  general  statement,  repeat  to  you  the  abstracts 
of  belief  upon  which  I  am  willing  to  meet  the  educated  world,  the  skeptical  and 
the  sinful  world,  using  my  words  in  the  evangelical  sense  :  The  inspiration  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  the  Trinity,  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  the  office  of  Christ  as  a 
mediator  when  grasped  by  an  obedient  faith,  conversion  by  God's  spirit,  man's 
natural  sinfulness,  and  the  final  separation  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked." 

In  the  Presbyterian  Memorial  Volume,  Dr.  Musgrave,  in  the  course  of  some 
remarks,  says : 

"  There  must  of  necessity  be  difference  of  opinion.  So  long  as  men  think  at 
all  they  will  difler  in  some  respects.  We  understand  there  is  to  be  allowed  in  this 
reunited  church  a  reasonable  degree  of  liberty." 

That  is  all  the  defense  asked — that  men  are  not  to  be  made  offenders  for  one 
word,  that  we  shall  discourage  needless  prosecutions,  for  there  is  always  danger 
that  prosecution  will  degenerate  into  persecution.  In  the  report  of  the  Committee 
on  Keunion,  page  279,  there  was  the  following  language:  "At  the  same  time  as 
we  interchange  these  guarantees  of  orthodoxy  we  interchange  guarantees  of  Chris- 
tian liberty.  Difi^erences  always  have  existed,  and  been  allowed,  as  to  modes  of 
expressing  and  theorizing  within  the  reach  and  bounds  of  one  accepted  system." 
In  view  of  these  testimonies,  I  submit  whether  it  is  proper  and  respectful  for  the 
prosecutor  to  come  before  this  body  and  declare,  as  he  did  in  his  opening  argu- 
ment, that  if  you  were  loyal  Presbyters  you  would  have  resented  the  expression 
of  belief  which  was  made  on  the  part  of  the  defendant  in  making  his  plea.  To  say 
that  this  trial  does  not  bring  up  the  old  issues  of  New  and  Old  Schools,  is  to  say 
what  all  the  intelligent  world  knows  to  be  the  reverse  of  the  fact.  It  does  bring  up 
these  issues.  These  are  the  only  issues  that  are  before  this  body  :  and  I  say  here, 
under  a  deep  sense  of  personal  responsibility  to  God,  that  if  the  respondent  is  to 
be  condemned  on  the  platform  which  he  has  distinctly  laid  down  before  you,  while 
I  do  not  speak  at  all  in  the  language  of  threat,  but  only  in  the  language  of  sorrow- 
ful foreboding  and  prophesy,  I  believe  it  will  rend  again  this  church  which  has  so 
recently  and  so  happily  been  reunited. 

And  now  I  ask  that  the  printed  and  oral  evidence  which  has  been  submitted 
in  this  case  may  be  adjudicated  upon  with  distinct  and  constant  reference  to  three 
facts ;  first  the  decision  of  the  General  Assembly  upon  the  case  of  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Craighead.  The  points  of  this  case  are  two.  The  Presbytery  first  says.  "Here 
it  will  be  important  to  remark  that  a  man  cannot  on  trial  be  convicted  of  heresy 
for  using  expressions  which  may  be  so  interpreted  as  to  involve  heretical  doctrines, 
if  they  may  also  admit  of  a  more  favorable  construction." 

The  next  point  in  that  case  was  that  the  Presbytery  decided  that  no  man  can 
be  convicted  of  heresy  by  inference  or  implication.  It  is  not  right  to  charge  any 
man  with  opinions  which  he  disavows. 

The  second  fact  which  the  court  should  hold  in  view  was  the  respondent's  own 
declaration,  which  is  to  the  eff"ect  that  he  does  receive,  and  receive  in  the  evangeli- 
cal sense,  the  very  doctrines  for  the  rejection  or  omission  to  teach  which  the  defen- 
dant is  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  this  court. 

The  third  fact  was  the  testimony  of  the  elders  of  the  Fourth  Church,  which 
is  confirmatory  in  every  particular  of  the  documentary  evidence. 

A  final  word  in  regard  to  the  alleged  ambiguity  of  language : 

I  count  it  providential  that  the  prosecutor  should  have  fallen  into  such  a 
palpable  and  gross  mistake  in  the  use  of  language  as  that  into  which  he  did  fall  in 
drawing  up  this  indictment,  as  regards  the  language  employed  with  respect  to 
Mary  Price  Collier.  His  own  friends  misunderstood  utterly  the  meaning  which 
he  said  U')  intended  to  convey  by  the  language  he  used.  I  submit,  therefore,  that 
if  the  defendant  is  to  be  censured  by  this  court  for  using  equivocal  language,  that 
vote  of  censure  should  also  include  his  prosecutor  for  being  guilty  of  the  same 
off'ense.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

At  the  close  of  the  address  of  defendant's  counsel,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Ely  moved  the 
adjournment  of  the  court  until  Monday  morning,  when  the  prosecutor  should 
proceed  with  his  review  of  the  case.    This  motion  was,  however,  voted  down,  and 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND   DEFENSE.       161 

a  resolution  passed  extending  the  sitting  to  such  an  extent  as  might  be  occupied  by 
the  prosecutor,  he  having  intimated  that  he  would  not  require  more  than  about 
four  hours  for  his  address. 

PROFESSOR  PATTON, 

who  appeared  to  be  physically  worn  out  with  his  exertions  during  the  trial,  then 
entered  upon  his  review  of  the  case,  remarking  at  the  outset  that  the  defense  would 
have  the  opportunity  to  reply  only  in  the  event  of  new  matter  being  introduced, 
but  this  he  would  carefully  avoid  doing.  The  Professor  fulfilled  his  intentions, 
and  his  remarks  were  strictly  confined  to  the  points  previously  discussed  at  length. 
He  affirmed  that  both  charges  were  true,  and  his  previous  doubts  as  to  the 
defendant's  theology,  he  said,  were  strengthened  by  the  two  declarations  made  by 
the  defense.  There  was  not  one  distinct  statement  in  Swing's  sermons  that  Christ 
was  God,  and  therefore  specification  6,  relating  to  the  doctrines,  was  distinctly 
proved.  He  did  not  call  Swing  an  Arian,  but  it  was  singular  that  during  a  seven 
years'  ministry,  and  believing  in  the  deity  of  Christ,  he  had  not  brought  forward 
one  sentence  which  would  silence  the  allegation. 

Giving  the  most  favorable  construction  to  Swing's  language,  it  still  remained 
true  that  the  question  of  Sabellianism  had  not  been  explained,  though  he  did  not 
affirm  that  Swing  was  a  Sabellian.  But  he  did  affirm  that  the  defendant  had  been 
unfaithful  in  his  ministry,  for  he  had  given  his  approval  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
modal  trinity.  He  had  arraigned  the  Presbyterian  Churches  and  the  Council  of 
Nice,  and  had  put  forward  a  doctrine  which  would,  he  (Swing)  thought,  save  the 
trinity  and  at  the  same  time  meet  the  objections  raised  against  the  trinity  by 
Unitarians.  The  sermon  was  an  attempted  reconciliation  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
three  persons  of  one  God,  with  Unitarian  views.  Did  Swing  believe  that  the  three 
persons  in  the  Godhead  are  equals  ?     That  was  the  question. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes — He  has  said  he  does. 

Professor  Patton — Nor  had  the  defense  been  more  successful  in  showing  that 
Professor  Swing  agreed  witli  the  Confession  of  Faith  respecting  justification  ;  and 
his  sermon,  "Faith,"  proved  this  to  be  true.  Swing  declared  yesterday  that  he 
believed  in  salvation  by  faith;  but  the  point  was  whether  he  believed  in  justifica- 
tion by  Faith,  as  taught  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  ?  He  never  mentioned  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  as  that  by  which  man  is  justified. 

The  prosecutor  then  propounded  an  elaborate  doctrinal  proposition  on  the 
question  of  faith,  and,  turning  round  to  Brother  Barrett,  one  of  the  clerks,  asked 
his  concurrence  thereto.  The  jovial-faced  clerk  looked  amazed  at  the  problem 
submitted  for  his  solution  and  gave  up  the  enigma,  amid  the  laughter  of  the 
audience. 

Professor  Patton  then  proceeded  to  review  Professor  Swing's  expressions 
respecting  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  declared  that  so  soon  as  you  spoke 
of  the  faith  of  the  people  in  the  infallibility  and  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  rational- 
ism would  be  established.  Professor  Swing  had  not  denied  the  accusations  brought 
respecting  his  views  on  the  109th  Psalm,  but  said  that  God  did  make  a  bad  psalm, 
and  therefore  he  could  not  believe  that  God  inspired  all  the  Scriptures.  Summin<j 
up  his  argument,  he  declared  that  notwithstanding  the  ability  of  the  accused,  and 
their  friendship  for  him,  the  Presbytery  would  be  doing  an  act  of  violence  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  if  they  permitted  him  to  go  on,  unimpeded,  in  his  dangerous 
course.  Professor  Swing  distinctly  stated  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  actual  is 
one  thing  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  historic  is  another,  and  that  his  church  is 
the  church  actual  and  not  the  church  historic.  They  did  not  know,  however,  what 
the  doctrines  of  the  actual  church  were,  but  they  did  know  the  views  held  by  the 
historic  church.  Profersor  Swing  had  no  right  to  call  himself  a  New  School  Pres- 
byterian, for  he  did  not  adhere  to  their  doctrines,  and  this  view  was  held  by  the 
New  York  Evangelist,  a  good  representative  of  New  School  theology. 

Turning  to  Brother  Young,  the  prosecutor  said  that  if  Young  had  used 
Swing's  language  he  would  have  thought  the  brother  sound,  but  he  could  not  give 
Swing  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 

He  proceeded  to  read  extracts  from  the  defendant's-  sermons,  until  Mr.  Noyes 
requested  him  to  read  the  context.     This  caused  a  "  scene." 

Professor  Patton  declared  with  vehemence,  "I  will  not  be  interrupted." 

The  spectators  on  the  south  side  of  the  room  loudly  hissed  this  remark,  while 
the  prosecutor's  friends  on  the  north  applauded  stoutly. 


162       ARGUMENTS  FOR   THE  PROSECUTION  AND  DEFENSE. 

The  Moderator  endeavored  to  restore  harmony  by  remarking  that  he  would 
not  have  allowed  the  prosecutor  to  be  interrupted,  bad  he  thought  ho  did  not 
wish  to  be. 

The  Kev.  Mr.  Garden  demanded  of  the  Moderator  his  ruling  as  to  whether  he 
would  permit  hissing  by  the  public. 

Said  the  Moderator,  meekly:  "You  must  remember  the  Moderator  is  a 
small  man." 

There  were  peals  of  laughter  at  this  remark.  When  the  merriment  had 
subsided  the  Moderator  denied  his  intention  of  being  funny,  and  told  the  inquiring 
member  that  the  Chair  had  no  authority  except  such  as  Christian  courtesy 
gave  him. 

The  Kev.  Mr.  Eddy  protested  against  the  prosecutor's  declaration,  romnrking 
that  it  would  be  a  novel  practice  in  a  Presbyterian  court  if  a  speaker  was  not  to  bo 
interrupted  by  members  who  wished  to  asli  questions. 

The  Moderator  hoped  that  all  these  demonstrations  of  opinion  and  feeding 
would  cease. 

Professor  Patton  said  that  interruptions  threw  even  a  cool-headed  spop.kcr  off 
his  guard,  and  he  ought  not  to  be  interrupted  when  the  court  had  compelled  him 
to  proceed.  He  re-affirmed  his  original  statement,  without,  he  said,  meaning  any 
discourtesy. 

Then  he  resumed  his  argument.  He  had  not  proceeded  far  when  his  friends 
moved  an  adjournment,  but  this  was  voted  down.  After  some  further  remarks  by 
the  Professor,  and  the  motion  to  adjourn  was  again  moved  by  a  member  on  Jii^ 
side  of  the  house,  Mr.  Young  rose  and  explained  that  the  motion  was  submitted,  a  = 
it  was  feared  by  the  Professor's  family  and  friends  that  he  would  break  down  if 
he  proceeded  further. 

Professor  Patton,  who  was  evidently  suffering  severely  from  physical  exhaus- 
tion, said  he  had  already  spoken  during  eleven  hours  in  that  assembly,  and  his 
friends  had  submitted  the  previous  resolutions  on  account  of  his  prostration.  He 
didn't  wish  the  Presbytery  to  now  grant  an  adjournment,  he  would  not  have  an 
adjournment,  but  would  go  through  with  bis  address. 

He  did  close  his  address,  at  the  close  of  which  he  called  upon  the  Presbytery 
to  perform  its  duty,  as  the  Presbyterian  churches  everywhere  were  watching  this 
trial,  and  declare  David  Swing  not  fit  to  bo  any  longer  a  minister  of  the  Presby- 
tei'ian  Church.  When  he  had  closed,  his  friends  gave  him  a  round  of  applause. 
Phe  court  then  adjourned  to  Monday  morning. 


REPORT    ON    THE    VERDICT. 


The  committee  appointed  to  prepare  a  statement  of  reasons  for  the  final  judg- 
ment of  the  Presbytery  in  the  case  of  the  Kev.  David  Swing,  report  as  follows  : 

Both  of  the  charges  against  Mr.  Swing  are  negative  in  form,  and  devolve  upon 
the  prosecutor  the  labor  of  proving  a  negative.  Much  depends  in  this  case  upon 
the  character  of  the  statement  of  the  questions  at  issue.     It  is  not  the  question — 

1.  "What  wo  may  believe  for  private  reasons  in  regard  to  the  real  views  of 
Mr.  Swing.  We  must  be  governed  by  the, evidence,  not  by  private  opinions,  in  our 
judgment  as  a  court. 

2.  It  is  not  the  question  what  Mr.  Swing  may  do  in  the  future.  We  are  con- 
fined to  the  evidence  of  what  he  has  said  or  done,  or  failed  to  do  or  say, 

3.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  Mr.  Swing  occupies  such  a  position  or 
habitually  uses  such  expressions  in  his  preaching  as  are  satisfactory  to  us  all.  He 
may  assume  an  attitude  in  relation  to  cxceptics  or  errorists  which  some  of  us  deem 
too  liberal,  and  he  may  employ  many  expressions  which  to  most  of  us  seem  not 
sufficiently  guarded,  and  yet  be  guilty  of  no  heresy,  and  of  no  such  unfaithfulness 
as  constitutes  an  ecclesiastical  offense.  The  question  as  it  regards  a  kindly  treat- 
ment of  errorists  is  one  about  which  our  church  has  no  positive  rule  or  judgment. 

4.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  the  views  of  Mr.  Swing  in  regard  to  the 
relative  importance  of  formulated  theology  are  or  are  not  correct.  A  man  may 
judge  erroneously  on  this  point,  and  yet  hold  all  the  essential  doctrines  of  evan- 
gelical Christianity  and  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  preach  the  gospel  with 
fidelity. 

5.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  Mr.  Swing  is  right  or  wrong  in  his  opinion 
regarding  the  extent  to  which  our  church  at  this  day  actually  holds  to  the  letter  of 
our  formula  faith,  or  insists  upon  the  propositions  contained  in  our  confession.  He 
may  for  himself  sincerely  receive  and  adopt  the  confession  as  "  containing  the  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  taught  in  the  holy  scriptures,"  and  yet  be  mistaken  as  to  the  sense 
in  which  the  church  requires  its  ministers  to  hold  the  Calvinistic  system. 

6.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  Mr.  Swing's  judgment  in  regard  to  the  best 
style  of  preaching  is  strictly  correct  or  not.  There  are  great  varieties  of  judgment 
on  this  subject  allowed  by  our  churches,  inasmuch  as  we  have  no  authorized  defi- 
nition of  what  faithful  preaching  is.  Only  such  styles  of  preaching  as  studiously 
and  designedly  avoid  Christian  truth,  or  clearly  inculcate  essential  error,  can  be 
justly  regarded  as  involving  an  ofi'ense  in  the  ecclesiastical  sense. 

7.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  Mr.  Swing  has  been  unfaithful,  as  all  imper- 
fect men  are  in  preaching  different  truths  more  or  less  out  of  their  due  proportions; 
for  on  this  point  we  have  no  absolute  standard  of  ecclesiastical  judgment. 

8.  Nor  is  it  the  question  whether  Mr.  Swing  has  been  claimed  by  Unitarians, 
or  .suspected  of  error  by  some  orthodox  people  ;  for  all  this  has  been  true  of  sound 
men  who  were  not  specially  unfaithful,  but  were  either  unfortunate  in  their  modes 
of  expression,  or  surrounded  by  persons  who  were  for  one  reason  or  another  inclined 
to  misconstrue  their  words,  or  position.  Such  circumstances  do  not  by  themselves 
l)rove  either  error  of  doctrine  or  ministerial  unfaithfulness  in  such,  a  sense  as 
constitutes  an  ecclesiastical  offense. 

But  the  questions  are  only  these : 

1.  Whether  it  has  been  conclusively  proved  that  Mr.  Swing  does  not  per- 
sonally hold  all  the  doctrines  that  are  by  our  church  regarded  as  essential  to  the 
system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  confession  and  in  the  holy  scriptures. 


^64  REPORT  ON  THE  VERDICT. 

2.  Whether  it  has  been  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  he  has  been  unfaithful 
in  the  discharge  of  his  ministerial  duty  in  such  a  sense  as  to  constitute  an  eccle- 
siastical offense. 

These  questions  the  Presbytery  has  answered  in  the  negative,  for  the  follow- 
ing reasons: 

1.  Mr.  Swing's  position,  as  a  Presbyterian  minister  who  has  solemnly  professed 
to  receive  and  adopt  our  confession  as  "containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught 
in  the  holy  scriptures,"  and  has  engaged  to  perform  all  his  ministerial  duties 
with  fidelity,  obliges  us  to  regard  him  as  orthodox  and  faithful  until  the  contrary 
is  incontestibly  established,  not  by  inferential  reasonings  from  his  statements,  but 
by  undeniable  and  direct  proof.  But  such  proofs,  in  our  judgment,  have  not  been 
produced.  The  alleged  evidences,  to  bo  conclusive,  require  us  to  assume  that  Mr. 
Swing  has  been  artfully  and  systematically  acting  the  part  of  a  willful  deceiver, 
who  ought  to  be  indicted  for  the  most  wicked  and  shameless  hypocrisy.  But  we 
dare  not  assume  such  a  ground  without  overwhelming  evidence. 

2.  Mr.  Swing  has  denied  the  charges  against  him  in  his  declaration;  has 
affirmed  that  he  is  a  New  School  Presbyterian,  and  has  asserted  that  he  holds  in 
the  evangelical  sense  "the  inspiration  of  the  holy  scriptures,"  "the  trinity,"  the 
"divinity  of  Christ,"  "the  office  of  Christ  as  a  mediator,"  when  grasped  by  an 
obedient  faith,  "Conversion  by  God's  Spirit,"  "man's  natural  sinfulness,"  and 
"the  final  separation  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked."  This  denial,  and  these 
affirmations,  if  sincerely  made,  oblige  us  to  regard  Mr.  Swing  as  occupying  on  all 
the  points  of  the  evangelical  and  Calvinistic  faith  substantially  the  same  ground 
as  the  former  New  School  theologians,  whose  views  of  Calvinistic  doctrine,  as  sot 
forth  in  the  Auburn  declaration  and  in  their  writings,  were  recognized  by  both 
general  assemblies,  at  the  time  of  the  reunion,  as  not  inconsistent  with  the 
integrity  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  with  a  sincere  reception  and  adoption  of 
the  confession  of  faith  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  holy 
scriptures.  We  by  no  means  contend  or  believe  that  it  was  implied  in  the  reunion 
that  the  great  body  of  the  church  endorsed  what  was  called  the  New  School 
theology,  as  held  by  such  men  as  Drs.  Eichards,  Benson,  Spear,  and  Hickock,  and 
Albert  Barnes.  What  we  say  is,  that  after  the  Auburn  declaration  had  been 
affirmed  by  the  Assembly  at  Albany,  in  1868,  to  "contain  all  the  essentials  of  the 
Calvinistic  creed,"  and  when  all  the  theologians  of  the  New  School  church  whose 
views  had  been  long  before  the  world  were  freely  received  into  the  united  bodj^, 
and  the  church  in  which  they  had  been  not  only  tolerated,  but  honored,  was  pro- 
nounced "a  sound  and  orthodox  body,"  it  was  clearly  understood  that  the  doctrines 
of  what  was  called  the  New  School  theology  were  to  be  allowed  in  the  reunited 
church  as  not  inconsistent  with  a  sincere  acceptance  and  adoption  of  the  confession 
of  faith  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  holy  scriptures.  And  in 
our  jugdment  it  has  not  been  found  that  Mr.  Swing  has  departed  further  from  the 
letter  of  the  confession  than  many  other  New  School  theologians,  who  were 
recognized  as  in  good  standing  at  the  time  of  the  reunion.  It  is  conceded  on  botli 
sides  that  a  subscription  to  the  letter  of  the  confession  on  all  points,  or  even  to  all 
the  propositions  in  the  confession,  is  not  essential  to  good  standing  in  the  reunited 
church.  The  doctrines  of  particular  and  general  atonement,  and  the  different 
views  that  are  held  among  us  in  regard  to  the  lawfulness  of  marrying  a  deceased 
wife's  sister,  are  not  alike  consistent  with  the  letter  of  propositions  of  the  con- 
fession. But  they  are  alike  allowed  in  the  church,  as  not  destroying  the  integrity 
of  the  system  embraced  in  our  confession :  and  so  of  many  other  points  of  difference 
among  us.  But  Mr.  Swing  has  not,  so  far  as  has  been  shown,  discarded  any 
teachings  of  the  confession  which  are  essential  to  the  integrity  of  the  system  taught 
in  the  symbols  of  our  church.  The  doctrines  which  he  avowedly  discards  in  his 
declaration  are  not  held  by  any  school  in  the  church,  and  he  only  implies'  in  that 
declaration  his  adoption  of  the  New  School  in  preference  to  the  Old  School  of 
theok  )gy. 

3.  It  has  not,  in  our  judgment,  been  proved  from  the  published  writings  of 
Mr.  Swing  that  he  discarded  any  essential  doctrine  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 
The  principal  specifications  bearing  directly  on  this  point  are  the  9th,  18th,  19th, 
20th,  21st,  23d,  and  24th,  under  charge  first,  and  the  four  specifications  under 
charge  second.  Specification  9th  allegc's  that  Mr.  Swing  has  taught  or  given  his 
sanction  to  Sabellianism.  But  the  language  quoted  is  consistent  with  a  belief  in 
the  church  doctrines  of  the  trinity,  and  this  doctrine  of  three  persons  in  one  God 


REPORT  ON  THE  VERDICT.  165 

18  distinctly  recognized  in  "  Truths  for  To-day,"  p.  81.  Besides,  it  has  been  proved 
by  parole  testimony  that  Mr.  Swing  does  avow  his  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  three 
persons  in  one  God.  Specification  18th  charges  that  Mr.  Swing  denies  in  effect  the 
judicial  condemnation  of  the  lost.  But  of  this  we  have  seen  no  proof.  The  state- 
ment that  unbelief  "  does  not  destroy  the  soul  by  an  arbitrary  decree,"  may  be 
fairly  understood  to  mean  that  God  does  not  assign  damnation  to  disbelievers 
without  good  reasons,  which  reasons  are  found  partly  in  the  very  nature  of 
unbelief.  There  is  no  denial,  expressed  or  implied,  of  a  divine  judicial  sentence 
upon  the  unbeliever.  Specification  19th  alleges  that  Mr.  Swing  teaches  that  faith 
saves  because  it  leads  to  a  holy  life,  «&c.  But  he  does  not  say  that  this  is  the  only 
relation  of  faith.  He  does  not  deny  that  faith  has  a  supernatural  origin,  when  he 
aflBrms  that  it  acts  naturally,  or  in  accordance  with  the  nature  and  laws  of  the 
human  mind.  And  we  do  not  see  that  any  of  the  statements  quoted  in  the  specifi- 
cation contravene  any  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  scripture  or  the  confession.  He 
does  not  discuss  in  the  sermon  quoted  the  whole  sulyect  of  faith,  but  simply 
considers  its  relation  to  a  holy  character.  Specification  20th  accuses  Mr.  Swing 
of  teaching  that  men  are  saved  by  works.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  he  denies 
that  there  is  another  sense  in  which  men  are  saved  by  faith  in  the  Saviour's  atoning 
sacrifice.  Indeed,  he  expressly  says  in  his  sermon  on  faith,  p.  239,  that  "  Pardon 
and  atonement  form  parts  of  the  great  salvation."  There  is  a  sense  in  which  men 
are  saved  by  works,  as  the  apostle  James  explicitly  teaches.  Specification  21 
alleges  that  Mr.  Swing  denies  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  as  held  by  the 
reformed  churches  and  taught  in  our  confession.  But  Mr.  Swing,  in  showing  that 
works — that  is,  a  new  life, — is  the  destiny  or  end  toward  which  faith  operates, 
does  not  deny  that  judicial  justification  is  a  reality  in  the  Christian  system.  On 
the  contrary,  he  asserts,  as  we  have  seen,  that  "pardon  and  atonement  are  parts  of 
the  great  salvation."  Like  James,  in  speaking  of  good  works,  he  treats  only  of 
the  necessary  place  which  a  new  life  holds  in  the  matter  of  salvation.  Specifica- 
tions 23  and  24  allege  that  Mr.  Swing  denies  the  plenary  inspiration  and  the 
infallibility  of  the  scriptures.  But  it  appears  from  Mr.  Swing's  letter  to  The 
Presbyterian,  and  from  his  explanations  before  this  body,  as  well  as  from  private 
statements  of  his  views  in  evidence  before  us,  that  he  believes  in  the  plenarj' 
inspiration  and  the  infallibility  of  the  bible,  and  only  adopts  some  peculiar  modes 
of  interpreting  and  applying  Old  Testament  teachings  and  the  book  of  Kevelations, 
about  which  our  confession  says  nothing. 

Specification  1,  under  the  second  charge,  alleges  an  offense  which  was  known, 
when  the  charges  were  brought  forward,  only  to  a  few  persons, — a  private  offense, 
— and  which  has  not  been  proved.  Specification  2  under  charge  second  has  not 
been  established  by  any  clear  evidence.  Specification  3  under  that  head  failed 
because  the  memory  of  Mr.  Shufeldt  was  altogether  uncertain,  and  because  there 
was  at  best  but  one  witness.  And  s])ecification  4  failed  because  even  if  the  quota- 
tions were  fairly  made  they  only  show  Mr.  Swing's  relative  estimate  of  the  prac- 
tical importance  of  the  doctrines  referred  to,  and  not  that  he  disbelieves  these  doc- 
trines. The  proofs  of  the  prosecution  are  all  inferential  and  indirect,  and  even  by 
his  inferences  we  do  not  admit  as  clearly  made  out.  The  accused  is  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  the  more  favorable  interpretations  which  his  language  seems*  to  us  to 
admit  of.  Besides  all  this  it  appears  from  the  testimony  of  the  elders  of  the  Fourth 
Church  and  of  other  witnesses  that  Mr.  Swing  has  not  taught  the  doctrines  charged 
upon  him  in  any  of  his  lectures,  but  has  explicitly  taught  the  contrary;  and  that 
he  has  in  private  conversation  explicitly  disavowed  his  belief  in  those  doctrines. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  evidence  from  Prof  Swing's  sermons  before  this 
body  goes  to  show  that  he  does  believe  the  doctrines  of  divine  decrees  and  nearly 
all  of  the  other  doctrines  which  he  is  charged  with  denying. 

For  all  these  reasons  we  have  judged  that  the  second  charge  is  not  sustained 
by  any  clear  and  satisfactory  proof.  And  for  the  same  and  like  reasons  we  have 
decided  that  the  first  charge  has  not  been  sustained.  A  few  additional  circum- 
stances may  be  stated  for  our  judgment  regarding  the  first  charge.  Under  this 
head  we  take  into  account  not  only  the  position  of  Mr.  Swing  as  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  and  his  explicit  denial  of  guilt  and  his  aflBrmations  of  substantial  agree- 
ment with  Now  School  Presbyterians,  in  which  we  are  bound  to  assume  his  entire 
honesty,  until  the  contrary  is  clearly  proved ;  but  the  particularity  of  his  mind 
and  stylo,  the  special  object  which  he  had  before  him  in  many  of  his  discourses, 
and  the  character  of  the  audiences  whom  he  has  chiefly  addressed  in  his  Sabbath 


166  REPORT  ON  THE  VERDICT. 

services  since  the  fire.  Mr.  Swing  deals  largely  in  illustration  and  the  use  of 
metaphorical  language,  and  often  rapidly  groups  together  many  particulars  which 
are  only  very  generally  related  together,  and,  although  not  a  mystic,  his  thought 
and  style  are  often  mystical,  and,  therefore,  more  or  less  obscure.  It  should  be 
remembered,  also,  that  he  avows  his  sense  of  the  necessity  of  less  theological  and 
more  practical  preaching ;  also  that  his  audiences  since  the  fire  have  consisted 
largely  of  persons  who  were  not  convinced  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  scriptures, 
and  whom  Jie  was,  therefore,  induced  to  address  frequently  on  the  reasonableness 
of  Christianity,  in  the  hope  of  gradually  preparing  them  to  admit  its  divine 
authority.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  during  this  period  he  has  dwelt  less 
upon  the  central  doctrines  of  the  gospel  in  his  discourses  on  the  Sabbath,  reserving 
his  more  explicit  instructions  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  people,  for  his  Wednesday 
evening  lectures,  as  his  elders  tell  us  he  has  done.  With  these  facts  in  mind,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  many  things  in  his  sermons  which  might  otherwise 
seem  hardly  consistent  with  an  earnest  evangelical  purpose. 

It  has  not  been  shown  that  he  has  intentionally  used  vague  or  equivocal 
language  in  regard  to  important  doctrines ;  or  that  he  has  declined  to  explain  his 
meaning  when  misunderstood,  in  such  a  way  as  to  prove  him  ecclesiastically 
unfaithful.  His  treatment  of  Unitarians,  and  his  discourse  on  the  life  and 
character  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  we  attribute  rather  to  his  kindly  and  charitable 
habits  of  mind  than  to  any  disposition  to  give  his  sanction  to  fundamental  error. 
For  he  has  often  in  his  sermons  declared  that  a  religion  which  makes  Christ  a 
mere  man  as  the  Unitarianism  of  our  day  almost  uniformly  does,  strikes  the  sun 
from  the  centre  of  the  system  ;  and  as  to  Mr.  Mill,  he  only  commenced  his  philan- 
thropy, which  he  expressly  attributed  to  the  Christian  influences  of  which  he  was 
unable  to  divest  his  mind.  Mr.  Swing  does,  indeed,  ridicule  the  manner  in  which 
some  of  the  more  difficult  doctrines  of  religion  have  been  often  defended  and 
propagated  by  persecution  and  force,  and  he  once  speaks  of  the  doctrines  of 
predestination  and  election  as  not  important  in  their  relation  to  "  the  historical 
features  of  an  age."  But  while  he  deems  the  prominence  sometimes  given  to  such 
mysteries  unwarrantable,  it  has  not  been  shown  that  he  treats  contemptuously  the 
doctrines  themselves. 

The  allegation  that  he  has  omitted  to  preach  or  teach  several  fundamental 
doctrines  is  not  sustained  in  any  sense  to  show  that  he  has  been  intentionally 
unfaithful.  For  it  has  been  shown  that  he  has  frequently  recognized  these 
doctrines  in  his  preaching  or  lectures,  excepting  those  which  are  seldom  touched 
upon  directly  in  most  of  our  Christian  pulpits ;  and  that  his  reference  to  those 
doctrines,  interpreted  in  view  of  his  evangelical  stand-point,  are  to  be  regarded  as 
carrying  with  them  an  evangelical  meaning.  His  sermon  on  experience  a^  a  test 
of  scriptural  doctrine  in  contradistinction  to  the  doctrines  of  the  church  "  as 
formally  stated,"  though  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  has  not  been  proved  to  teach 
any  radical  error.  He  has  expressly  disavowed  the  doctrine  both  in  his  sermons 
and  before  the  Presbytery.  The  allegation  that  he  has  made  false  and  dangerous 
statements  regarding  the  standard  of  faith  and  practice,  it  is  not  established  by  the 
passages  referred  to,  when  considered  in  their  construction,  although  the  language 
used  is  in  some  instances  liable  to  be  misapprehended.  In  regard  to  the  being  and 
attributes  of  God,  we  do  not  find  any  language  of  Mr.  Swing  that  is  clearly  of 
false  and  dangerous  import,  although  some  expressions  are  perhaps  not  sufficiently 
guarded  against  misconstruction.  The  specification  in  regard  to  baptism  does  not 
seem  to  be  sustained  by  any  sufficient  evidence,  and  the  allegation  respecting 
Penelope  and  Socrates  is  not  supported  by  unquestionable  proofs.  For,  taking 
the  language  quoted  in  its  most  unfavorable  sense,  it  asserts  a  doctrine  which 
is  held  by  some  confessedly  sound  Presbyterians,  and  which  is  not  regarded 
by  them  as  contrary  to  ov;r  confession.  Specifications  both  14  and  15  have  not  been 
established  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prove  unfaithfulness  in  the  sense  of  an  ecclesias- 
tical offense.  Indeed  they  seem  to  rest  on  a  misapprehension  of  Mr.  Swing's 
meaning.  Specification  16,  to  say  the  most,  is  only  supported  by  an  appeal  to 
language  carelessly  used,  such  as  we  often  find  in  the  writings  of  good  and  truthful 
men.  .Specification  17  has  not  been  established  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prove  an 
ecclesiastical  offense.  It  thus  appears  that  none  of  the  specifications  have  been  so 
substantiated  as  to  make  out  clearly  an  ecclesiastical  offense. 

The  legal  principles  applicable  to  this  case  are  clear.  No  man  can  be  justly 
convicted  of  heresy  by  an  unfavorable  interpretation  of  his  language,  when  it 


REPORT  ON  THE  VERDICT.  167 

admits  of  a  more  favorable  conEtruction  than  the  prosecutor  has  put  upon  it,  as  we 
have  seen. 

Every  man  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  his  disclaimer  of  doctrines  attributed  to 
him  which  he  denies  that  he  holds.  And  we  have  seen  that  Mr.  Swing  docs  deny- 
that  he  discards  any  doctrine  that  is  essential  to  the  .system  taught  in  the  confession 
as  held  by  New-School  theologians,  and  heretofore  acknowledged  as  allowable  by 
the  authorities  of  the  church. 

No  man  can  be  justly  convicted  of  error  by  inferences  from  his  teachings, 
which  inferences  he  refuses  to  acknowledge,  however  logicallj"-  the  conclusion  may 
be  drawn,  and  much  less  can  anyone  be  held  respon.siblo  for  inferences  which  do 
not  follow  by  necessary  consequence  from  his  position. 

But  Mr.  Swing  is  accused  by  the  prosecutor  on  almost  every  point,  on  the 
ground  of  inferences  which  do  not  seem  to  follow  unavoidably  from  the  language 
used. 

It  is  a  just  maxim  in  our  ecclesiastical  law  that  no  man  should  be  convicted  of 
an  offense,  so  long  as  there  can  be  any  doubt  of  his  guilt. 

But  it  seems  to  us  that  there  is,  to  say  the  very  least,  room  for  some  doubt  in 
regard  to  the  guilt  of  the  accused  in  this  case.  For  these  principles  see  the  cases 
of  Craighead  and  Barnes'  digest. 

In  view  of  all  these  considerations,  some  of  which  are  deemed  more  weighty 
and  some  less  weighty,  by  different  members  of  this  body  who  voted  with  the 
Tuajority,  we  are  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  the  several  specifications  have  not 
been  sustained. 

In  rendering  the  judgment  we  by  no  means  indorse  all  the  expressions  and 
sentiments  of  Mr.  Swing,  or  assume  the  responsibility  of  defending  his  peculiar 
stj'le  of  preaching.  We  would  be  understood  as  simply  pronouncing  our  judg- 
mcnt  on  the  points  involved  in  the  indictment,  according  to  the  evidence  that  has 
come  before  our  minds  in  the  progress  of  this  distressing  trial.  All  of  which  is 
respectfully  submitted. 

K.  W.  Patterson. 

A.    SWAZKY. 

K.«  E.  Barber. 


Throughout  the  entire  proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  in  this  case,  the  reader 
will  observe  that  reference  is  made  to  the  work  entitled  "Truths  for  To-day."  This 
beautiful  book  is  published  by  Jansen,  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago.  Price  $1.50.  It 
contains  the  following  Sermons:  "Religious  Toleration,  or  Charity."  "The  Golden 
Kule."  "Eighteousness."  "Christianity  and  Dogma."  "  Emotion  and  Evidence." 
"Good  Works."  "The  Great  Debate."  "Charles  Sumner."  "The  Lost  Paradise." 
"Positive  Kcligion."  "Christianity  as  a  Civilization."  "St.  Paul."  "Faith." 
"St.  John."  "Immortal  Life."  "A  Kcasonable  Orthodoxy."  (The  latter  preached 
May  3d.)  The  complete  oflicial  report  of  the  trial  is  being  prepared  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Presbytery,  and  will  be  published  immediately  by  the  above  firm. 


PEN-PICTURES 

—  OF  — 

PROFESSORS    PATTON   AND    SWING. 


By  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson. 

We  who  have  so  many  great  things  are  now  about  to  have  the  greatest  trial 
for  heresy  of  this  generation.  The  Presbytery  of  Chicago  is  the  cynosure  of  very 
many  eyes,  religious  and  irreligious.  It  is  an  ill  wind,  etc.  The  daily  press  has 
taken  to  religious  matter  as  if  to  the  manner  born.  They  fairly  revel  in  religious 
interviewing,  and  plume  themselves  on  leaded  "leaders"  settling  by  a  final 
"ipse  dixit"  the  fundamental  principles  of  ecclesiastical  law.  The  Confession  of 
Faith  is  furnished  as  a  condiment  at  a  hundred  thousand  breakfast  tables,  and 
liberal  doses  of  the  "  Digest"  are  given  out  to  help  digestion. 

We  are  just  beginning  to  see  what  a  popular  subject  theology  is.  It  only 
needs  the  dress  of  gossip  to  make  it  supremely  attractive.  Meantime  pushing  past 
this  whirl  of  newspaper  dust  that  fairly  darkens  the  air,  how  stands  the  matter 
within  the  Church  ?  Eev.  David  Swing  is  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  Presbytery  by 
Prof.  F.  L.  Patton  on  the  double  charge  of  unfaithfulness  in  his  ministry,  and  not 
sincerely  adopting  the  Confession  of  Faith. 

Who  are  these  men  ?  Both  bear  the  title  of  professor.  Both  are  good  preach- 
ers, and  good  fellows,  and  somewhere  in  that  neighborhood  the  resemblance  ends, 
for  these  two  men  are  singularly  unlike.  A  word  about  their  personnel,  physical 
and  mental.  If  you  happen  into  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  at  half-past  ten 
of  a  Sunday  morning  you  will  see  on  the  pulpit  platform  a  very  quiet,  unassuming 
man,  of  medium  heiglit,  weight  and  age,  with  smooth  face,  brown  hair  combed 
back,  friendly  eyes,  well-molded  forehead,  good-sized  mouth,  and  heavy  jaws — 
that  is  Prof.  Swing.  When  he  begins  the  service  you  perceive  he  is  not  a  graceful 
man.  His  voice  has  a  singular  drawl,  yet  not  wholly  unpleasant.  Its  tones  are 
persuasive,  and  suggest  a  gentle  spirit.  He  does  not  stand  erect,  but  half  leans 
upon  the  desk,  and  reads  the  Bible,  or  engages  in  prayer  in  subdued  and  measured 
tones.  You  will  not  listen  long  till  you  conclude  there  is  not  much  self  conscious- 
ness there.  As  the  sermon  proceeds  you  become  interested.  Uncouth  manner, 
awkward  gestures,  and  poetic  thought  have  a  fitness  about  them  that  makes  an 
attractive  tout  ensemble.  You  become  aware  as  you  are  quietly  borne  on  from 
sentence  to  sentence  of  a  mind  that  sees  things  in  large  and  general  relations. 
There  is  a  certain  indefiniteness  of  statement  that  suggests  a  long  perspective  of 
thought.  There  is  no  clank  of  surveyor's  chain,  but  only  the  sliding  in  and  out 
of  the  object  glass  that  adjusts  your  vision  now  to  one  focus,  now  to  another,  but 
always  to  a  beautiful  picture.  When  he  closes  you  perceive  he  has  led  you  through 
a  very  pleasant  land,  shown  you  some  stimulating  truths,  and  perhaps  grounded 
you  in  certain  broad  principles  which  underlie  the  separate  forms  of  church  life  or 
doctrine.  He  has  not  analyzed  much,  but  he  has  created  a  good  deal,  and  leaves 
you  to  make  your  own  arrangement  and  application.  As  you  leave  the  sanctuary 
you  will  probably  have  some  such  impressions  as  these :  That  man  has  not  striven 
after  any  efi"ect,  but  his  thoughts  run  in  his  own  mold,  and  have  been  before  me  in 
a  form  unhackneyed.  He  has  not  clearly  asserted  any  new  proposition,  but  he 
has  been  climbing  to  a  broad  view  that  holds  within  its  picture-lines  many  pro- 
positions.   He  has  not  specially  defined  truth,  but  he  has  suggested  certain  views 


DR.  POWERS  IN  THE  INDEPENDENT.  fig 

which  may  lead  me  to  a  dcSnition.  In  a  word,  he  has  not  exactly  preached  to  me, 
but  he  and  I  have  had  a  rumble  in  fields  that  hold  within  them  the  possibilities  of 
a  good  harvest.  And,  especially,  I  think  the  vital  force  of  that  sermon  was  in  a 
tender,  earnest  sentiment,  a  kind  of  implied  friendship  between  us,  and  an  implied 
aspiration  in  his  heart  and  mine  toward  a  higher  life.  And  if  you  should  thus 
judge  you  would  not  greatly  misjudge  the  preacher. 

Step  over  now  into  a  neighboring  church.  A  tall,  slender,  straight  young 
man  looks  directly  at  you  through  a  pair  of  spectacles,  and  announces  his  text  in 
clear,  positive  tones,  that  at  once  suggest  deep  conviction,  and  that  man  is  Prof. 
Patton.  He  is  so  very  thin  ho  looks  uncomfortably  frail,  but  he  comes  down  on 
his  text  with  a  solid  emphasis  that  indicates  no  disposition  to  spare  the  flesh. 
He  has  no  notes.  There  is  no  introduction  to  his  sermon.  He  plunges  straight 
into  the  argument  in  phrases  far  enough  from  stilted,  and  in  clear-cut  propositions 
which  are  far  enough  from  dullness.  His  tone  is  conversational.  His  manner  and 
matter  are  exceedingly  frank  and  manly.  His  process  of  thought,  logical  and 
unhalting.  The  sermon  is  doctrinal,  but  not  bony.  It  has  life-color,  and  is 
rounded  oS  with  apt  and  fresh  illustrations.  From  first  to  last  he  goes  fluently  on. 
The  thoughts  succeed  each  other  in  such  bright  movement  no  attention  can  flag, 
and  when  he  suddenly  closes,  you  realize  that  you  have  got  quite  a  body  of  divinity 
to  meditate  upon.  As  you  walk  out  of  the  house,  very  likely  you  will  say.  Well, 
this  man,  in  sincerity,  frankness,  manhood,  the  same  as  the  other,  is  his  intellectual 
antipode.  If  the  other  was  a  picture,  this  is  a  surveyor's  chain  flashing  in  every 
solid  link.  His  convictions  are  deeply  cut,  and  earnestly  put.  He  will  stake  his 
life  on  the  truth  he  sees  and  speaks.  It  is  lively,  rattling  logic,  brought  down  to 
date.  Calvinistic  Young  America.  And  if  you  should  thus  judge  you  would  not 
greatly  misjudg    the  preacher. 

These  are  the  men  who  stand  before  each  other,  and  the  public,  in  a  contest  in 
which  each  is  sincere  and  honest,  and  in  which  it  should  be  the  prayer  of  every 
Christian  mind  (knowing  no  man  after  the  flesh)  may  the  end  be  for  the  truth  and 
the  glory  of  God. 


Dr.  Powers  in  the  Independent. 


The  Rev.  H.  N.  Powers,  D.  D,,  of  this  city,  in  the  last  number  of  the  New 
York  Independent,  thus  speaks  of  Prof.  Swing : 

He  has  tenderness  and  ho  has  strength  ;  he  has  learning  and  he  has  sentiment- 
he  has  common  sense  and  he  has  piety;  and  with  his  poetic  vision  and  ardor  arc 
blended  such  holy  and  penetrative  sympathies  as  enable  him  to  use  his  resources 
in  a  way  more  helpful  to  some  than  could  be  possible  with  even  greater  intel- 
lectual ability  and  a  less  characteristic  spiritual  mold.  It  is  this  peculiar  consti- 
tution that  enables  him  to  appreciate  well  the  hindrances  to  reason  alone  and  to 
faith  alone ;  but,  while  he  ignores  neither  the  laws  of  matter  nor  of  mind,  and, 
therefore,  never  treats  flippantly  or  disdainfully  the  facts  of  science  or  the  per- 
plexities of  the  intellect,  he  never  forgets  the  nature  and  needs  of  tlie  soul — he 
never  forgets  that  "Christ  came  that  wo  might  have  life,  and  that  we  might  have 
it  more  abundantly."  Spirit  is  the  absolute  fact  with  him,  and  it  is  the  command- 
ing vitalities  of  Christianity  that  engage  his  heart  and  inspire  bis  ministry. 


Prof.  Swing's  Sermons 


REVISED  BY  HIMSELF 


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EDITORS: 

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Rev.   a  D.  HELMER,       -        .        .        . 
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